Tag: productivity

It’s the productivity, stupid!

Guest Post by Walter Block via International Man

productivity

Editor’s Note: Walter Block is an Austrian economist, a libertarian thinker, and professor at Loyola University. He is the author of more than 600 articles in professional journals, two dozen books, and thousands of op-eds (including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and numerous others). He is a long-time friend of Doug Casey and has known Murray Rothbard, Friedrich Hayek, and met Ludwig von Mises.

Today, Walter examines why productivity and employee wages go hand in hand and why financial journalists and politicians tend to get it wrong.

This piece was originally published on AmericanThinker.com.

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All too many financial journalists fail to realize that productivity, not employer generosity, determines wages. (Actually, it is discounted marginal revenue productivity, but we don’t have to go into all of that.)

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‘End of the world’: This futurist has some grim news for the middle class

Via Marketwatch

‘This figure is the end of the world for the average people. It reflects a rather depressing picture: The state and the economy are advancing by storm — but the workers are almost not benefitting from this progress and are left behind. It is almost a catastrophe.’

That’s Dr. Roey Tzezana, a “future studies” researcher at Tel Aviv University and a research fellow at Brown University, referring to the growing gap between labor productivity and wages, as seen in this chart:

In other words, as automation continues to render jobs obsolete, the divide between the rich and everybody else will only continue to grow, and the middle class as we know it will cease to exist. Such a scenario will create a society of extreme pockets of wealth and those who can barely get by.

And that’s a problem for everybody, he said.

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How To Be Productive According To Ancient Philosophy

Guest Post by Darius Foroux

Improving productivity has been a pursuit of the modern human being from the start of civilization.

Somehow, we believe that productivity is something that became important after the industrial revolution. We assume that, because we live busy lives, we need to optimize our time—especially in the 21st century.

That’s not true. Productivity has been a topic of discussion ever since ancient eastern and western philosophy started. It’s a universal theme. I believe it’s in our nature to make better use of our time.

Because that’s what productivity means. On a deeper level, we all realize we have limited time. You and I both know that we’re not getting younger.

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11 Unproductive Habits You Want To Quit

Guest Post by Darius Foroux

The reason I study productivity is because I’m an unproductive person. I truly am.

I sleep too much. I talk too much. I read too much. I listen to music all day. I watch movies. I buy gadgets that turn me into a zombie.

If it wasn’t for my productivity system, I wouldn’t get anything done. I wouldn’t even write this article. But if you browse social media, all you see is super productive, healthy, and wealthy people. Is that really the case?

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