Comments on: Strikes up. Who is surprised? What about productivity?

By: .

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 22:49:05 +0000

What point are you trying to make Brian?

He’s a left wing troll for jesus, but I’m guessing he’s a splitter or wants to be a woman.

By: Poor Old Rafe

Poor Old Rafe — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 10:54:13 +0000

What point are you trying to make Brian? Thanks Gab, however it is hard to interpret aggregated data, it is much more helpful to look at a single sector or firm where you are talking about concrete things like the number of crane movements or containers moved per shift on the waterfront, or you can target specific bad work practices in an industry like commercial building. This is more focussed. This is helpful, a speech by Gary Banks, Chairman of the Productivity Commission.

By: Gab

Gab — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 09:51:10 +0000

Just for you, Rafe. Lots and lots of productivity charts.

By: Brian4Jesus

Brian4Jesus — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 06:05:12 +0000

Er, sorry, I made the mistake of reading poor old rfes intro, assumed he was trying to make a point.

By: .

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 05:56:14 +0000

What’s your point? We believe in free association and property rights.

“Last time I looked”…what is this in relation to. Who has suggested otherwise?

By: Brian4Jesus

Brian4Jesus — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 05:53:09 +0000

So in a free society workers are free to associate and pursue a common interest that may include a withdrawal of their labour, doesn’t that right distinguish us from the extremes of left and right?
Who would suggest that a business continue trading if management determined it was not in its interest to do so. Last time I looked they were free to pursue their best interest.

By: .

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 05:35:37 +0000

Technology too must be measured, yes.

Technology is the crystallisation of productivity enhancing knowledge. it is valuable because knowledge can be lost and more so for tacit knowledge.

Given that labour productivity can increase under perverse circumstances, this may mean we’ve also taken a shock in terms of technology. Which would lower incomes and potential income/output.

This is confirmed by the excess capacity we have at the moment.

By: Ooh Honey Honey

Ooh Honey Honey — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 05:24:03 +0000

If you really want to get advanced, “productivity” as a concept also goes out of date every day in proportion to innovation. It gets cemented into statistical analyses because the assumptions they make about how shit gets done are necessarily fixed. So as well as being Stalinist propaganda, it also doesn’t tell us much about anything.
Like, how many cartwheels get made every day? Fuckall. Does that mean productivity is down?

By: Rafe

Rafe — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 05:11:10 +0000

That is probably what Matt Cowgill demonstrated.

By: .

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 05:02:45 +0000

Err, productivity per worker increases when unemployment rises. There is excess capacity.