Quote: (03-01-2013 05:27 PM)kosko Wrote:
Please tell me how hours worked means anything?
In America I witness people move little things around, and staple papers and this is some how called "work", I see road workers all raking the same spots over, again this is called "Work". Sheets and invoices stay bogged down for days as a matter of "process", you go to a Bank and you have to speak and go through three people just to cash a cheque. As people twiddle their thumbs... all "putting in hours" doing nothing but farting and thinking of what they are eating on their lunch breaks. This isn't productivity its simply activity which does not equal anything in the grand scheme of it.
America confuses activity as productivity. The mere actions of going to work and putting in hours does not equal production, or production of real wealth/things.
Its the same hamster that makes people in the West think that going to the gym and walking on a treadmill while on your iPhone is a workout and then eating Subway after. The act of doing the motions does not mean anything if it is not truly productive.
I am not shaming America like I am sitting in some beacon of efficacy. Mind you we are even less efficient here in Canada but that is because are labour costs more, less energy efficient, and we work less hours.
Using GDP is misleading because GDP is flawed in itself to measure actual product and wealth. Its a empty metric where 'fat Bobby' at the cubicle farting it up and looking at Ebay on his phone is a positive gain to the economy.
In Luxembourg they sit at computers and manage extremely large amounts of computer Money. In America you get paid with computer money to sit at a desk and glue papers - this is not real stuff - but to their sake in Luxembourg it is not energy intensive, and it's extremely cheap to run their economy (which is key).
A better metric is seeing how much energy it takes to produce GDP. Energy use falls under a large umbrella that involves everything. People don't like to talk about energy because it points holes in the West's dominance because we are extremely wasteful in how are economies function and are run, and do not get nearly the bang for our buck as many other nations. But Energy is everything: from how long your stuck in traffic, how much your nation has to purchase oil, how much oil goes into building your office tower, how much it takes to get food in you to give you energy to work, etc.
Once you start looking at that America is in the same boat as Economic tigers such as Cameroon and the Czech Republic.
Truly efficient nations are able to get a lot of productivity out of minimal costs and energy use. These are true efficient monsters whom make lemonade out of rocks on the daily while we sit here in North America farting for pay cheques.
Nations like:
Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, China, Austria, France, Luxembourg, Ireland, UK, China.
are miles beyond more efficient in their productivity then America is. For the hours America puts in they should actually be producing more. That is the glaring thing people don't like to look at, because for how intensive the economy is its a mess that only achieves 40-60% of what it should.
And that's the thing there was a time when America was so far ahead in efficacy nobody else could fuck with it. Its extra hours put in were begin rewarded with actual things that had actual value. Its not the case any more as America is a bogged down Granny as much of the West. We don't want to make the investments to fix these issues though so the trend will only continue, and your work hours will only grow longer with less money in your pocket as a result.
Your info is anecdotal and entirely contrary to reality. You are actually arguing that China - one of the poorest countries on earth - is more productive that the US? I guess the Chinese must only work 10 hours/weeks since they are so poor. If you have any interest in facts, read a book called the Power of Productivity. It has detailed productivity stats and shows that, aside from a few industries that the Japanese still dominate, Americans are the most productive workers in the world.