Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Perry on Productivity v Employment

http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2010/07/increased-worker-productivity-has.html
Check the link, look at the graphs.

"Ron Bullock, chairman of Bison Gear & Engineering Corp, writing in theWashington Examiner: 

"More effective foreign competition has led to increasing manufactured-goods trade deficits and the loss of 7 million U.S. manufacturing jobs since 1980."

Don Boudreaux responds:

"This account – repeated ad nauseam – would be more plausible if it were also the case that U.S. manufacturing output, during this same time, had declined. But this output rose. Manufacturing output today is nearly 100 percent higher than it was 30 years ago (see chart). Importantly, manufacturing output is up while manufacturing employment is down for a reason that is cause not for the pessimism that universally attends accounts such as Mr. Bullock‘s but rather for optimism. That reason is substantial growth in productivity, which is the only source of sustained and widespread prosperity.""

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