We would do well to be suspicious of statistics on relative productivity, as compiled by that organ of One World Socialism, the ILO — with all its shibboleths about ‘rights’ to worker’s representation and ‘decent’ work, ‘fair’ wages, ‘gender gaps’ and all the rest of the leftist paraphernalia on display there. Though much has been made, on a quiet news day, about America slipping behind the likes of Norway, Belgium and France on an output per hour basis, what must also be noted is that all this measure does is divide Real GDP — with all its inherent distortions — by aggregate hours worked. Given all our concerns about how US GDP, in particular, has been hedonically price-adjusted upwards and fuelled by hefty capital decumulation — not to say increasingly militarized — as well as the more fundamental objections to the consumption-oriented GDP statistic itself being employed as a measure of true well-being — we must look askance at this whole exercise. These tables, for example, show the Swiss producing barely 70% per head of what the US manages. A trifle strange, when you consider the quality of life in Basle to that in Birmingham or Baltimore.
That Old ‘Productivity’ Thing
