What do you think of this?
http://www.cnn.com/2007/BUSINESS/09/02/un.productivity.ap/index.html
Remember to think like an economist.
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About Me
- Stacy
- International educator interested in the intersection of curriculum, professional development,technology integration and how they all fit together.
10 comments:
This article can be applied to our recent study on supply and demand. The change in technology can shift the supply curve to the right which represents an increase in supply. But in order to get an increase in supply, productivity must also increase. This is a problem for many third world countries such as Malaysia, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. These countries are unproductive because they do not have sufficient machinery or technology to produce goods as well as the US and France, or other wealthy countries. The average wealth per year measured is skewed in all countries because of people such as Bill Gates and celebrities. They make multi-million dollars per year, whereas others make minimum wage. The reason the US has a higher annual income per capita is because of the minimum wage. In poorer countries around the world, a person would be lucky to make a dollar a day, therefore the US' minimum wage helps them when in comparison to other nations world wide.
In the future, I think the US will gradually reach a peak, and other countries will slowly become more developed, improve infrastructure and technology and thus increase productivity. As the US begins to level out its productivity and other data, countries that are now less developed will be closer in perspective. But, then again.. that's in the future...
After reading the article and watching the video it makes sense the US leads in having higher paychecks than most countries because it is very developed and has more opportunities for creating more products at a cheaper price. What shocked me was the *No vacation nation* comment. you would think with high paychecks more americans would be taking vacationss, and anyways for alot of other countries just living in the states where their are so many benefits would be like living a vacation. I think emilie is right about how other countries will slowly become more developed, improve infrastructure and technology and thus increase productivity.
I watched on CNN 2 days ago about US being the "most hardworking nation" as well as the "no vacation nation" and it did surprise me a lil because i always had this perception that Americans have a balanced life and all those relevant cultures which really didn't give me the slightest clue that they'd actually choose work over vacation(If i'm not mistaken,CNN reported that 1 out of 3 workers do not take all their leave).
Since Americans are so dedicated to their work and with the advanced technology they have, they can certainly remain at the top for being the most productive country.However,like Emilie and Matt mentioned, other developing countries catching up.
I have frequently heard comments stating that the US has the highest productivity rate and higher wealth than many other countries. Emilie's point about this being related to the high increase in technological development relates to the fact why supply would then naturally increase, explaining the statement that the US apparently has the highest productivity. As the article stated, many Asian economies have even more workers than the US, but they have less developed technology, which doesn't allow for that much productivity. I also agree with Emilie's comment about the minimum wealth increasing annual income per capita in the US in comparison to other countries, since mnay countries don't have such a price floor. However, I'm slightly skeptic about this article and not willing to believe it right away, since I think there are many factors that need to be considered before classifying the US in such a way. for example, it must also be considered that the US government gives many subsidies to producers, which will of course alter the productivity rate.
This article showed that more working hours does not necessarily indicate more productivity, as was the case with the Asian countries such as Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. This is because to create growth you need to increase the QUALITY of your labor and the technology used to create more productivity. According to the article these third world countries have the potential to be more productive but lack in "investment in training, equipment and technology".
I think it is possible for the many developing countries in the world to reach the level of productivity the US shows (China is showing remarkable potential at this)...but as Emilie said, that will be in the future.
I have a question to emilie and luisa...because I noticed both seem to be agreeing on this point: does an increase in supply indicate an increase in productivity?
I dont know if you could conclude that an increase in supply necessarily causes more productivity..I dont know..maybe?
Basically this shows that with new technology more can be acheived in less periods of times. Henry Ford's ideals can still be related to today's world.
In respect to Debora's question... More productivity naturally mean more supply. I mean if you produce more you will have more..
like eze said, its interesting to see how such an "antique" set of ideals liek those of henry ford are still used today... the more techn. the faster these products are created.
I woudl also like to agree on what debbie said. I do not think that an increase in supply necessarily causes more productivity... in some cases yes, but in others, i do not think that is what happens. One can produce more supply but if that supply doesnt reach where it needs to go... the productivity side of it is lost.
Interesting... immigration is probably one of the biggest reasons for why America is the leader in labor productivity. Immigrants usually have one of the strongest working mentality but don't see opportunity to be valued in their nations of origin and so they migrate to more developed countries where their work can be better valued. A huge portions of the US population comes/came from immigration, and to me this huge population could be a major reason for the USA high productivity rates, the other major reason the US has high productivity rates is obviously efficiency, which has always been important to American industry, with America being one of the first to adopt the assembly line, and mass production. Then finally technology, which as we all know shift the supply curve outwards and allows more to be produced done with less. These are the main factors I see which give the US an advantage in labor productivity, but I also see these advantages slowly being lost, the immigration has greatly decreased since 9/11 and all the biggest factories have decided to move to places like China or India to decrease its labor cost, and finally technology which is still strong but not AS strong due to the competition with new industrialized nations such as Japan or Korea.
I thought Dante's point about immigration was interesting. Immigration indeed contributes to a huge work force in low-skill jobs. Americans with better jobs and a higher education may take more vacation leave because they can afford it. This reminds me of France's problems-- President Sarkozy, and even Royal, say that the French are lazy and must work harder to help the economy. But Sarkozy's anti-immigration stance may be affecting productivity-- most of the population is well-educated, and probably aren't as willing to work year-round as immigrants would be. Sorry to drift on a tangent about France, but the concept can be applied to the US.
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