Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

[Michael Czeiszperger <michael AT czeiszperger.org>]

On Apr 12, 2004, at 8:37 PM, Thomas Beckett wrote:

> I also cringe when I hear about job loss due to increased productivity 
> from American workers.  That essentially means that fewer people are 
> doing more work -- the workload of the laid off -- for the same or 
> less money.  People working desperately hard so as not to get laid off 
> themselves.

According to the article in the Economist sited earlier the idea that 
we're seeing an increase in GDP based on worker productivity, but yet 
have not seen an increase in job gross is unprecedented.  At all other 
times countries with an increase in productivity have also seen an 
increase in job growth. It is much more likely that the GDP numbers are 
false than the US has suddenly broken all the economic rules.

Another area that looks suspicious is that in the past 50 years 
increases in the economy due to the goods and services sector have 
tracked in lockstop with the increases in the manufacturing sector. In 
2002 this correlation was dumped on its head, when the goods and 
services sector increased by a factor of 4 in relation to the 
manufacturing sector.  The economist in the article found it highly 
suspicious that while the output of the manufacturing sector in the US 
was based on industry reports, and thus were based on hard data, the 
output from sectors that were based on gross estimates had seen 
enormous increases.

___________________________________________________________________
michael at czeiszperger dot org
Chapel Hill, NC