America remains the world’s richest, most productive and most innovative big economy. By an impressive number of measures, it is leaving its peers ever further in the dust. ... Today it accounts for 58% of the G7's GDP, compared with 40% in 1990.
Americans are getting richer because they are getting more productive more quickly than workers in other rich countries.
And don't forget Management (really good management book):
...Fierce competition, the researchers believe, helps to explain America’s corporate culture. Bosses are more comfortable with firing employees (and more easily able to: America has much weaker employee-protection law than other large economies). Markets are readier to reward companies for evidence that they are well run. America’s managerial strength, their survey finds, explains as much as half of the productivity lead that it has over other developed countries.
But like any policy there are costs to this productivity:
...America’s economy permits extreme volatility in individual livelihoods. Unemployment soars during downturns. Vast numbers end up chucked to the side: a combination of drugs, gun violence and dangerous driving has led to a shocking decline in average life expectancy in America. This suffering is concentrated among the country’s poorest, most marginalised communities.
But can't we have a kinder, gentler productivity?
“It would be nice if we could design policies that solve inequality and promote growth at the same time, but regrettably there are only a few policies that do both.
No comments:
Post a Comment