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In the short run, productivity gains help earnings at the expense of employment, and that's not a situation that we should want to last," said Sung Won Sohn, chief economist at Wells Fargo & Co. in Minneapolis.
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Okay? Productivity and employment are negatively related in the short term. You cut short run costs by layoffs, becuase all your other costs are sunk or fixed already.
second, i'd wager that blue collar tends to have somewhat less control over thier amount of output with relation to their morale. but that's not really even the issue...so never mind.
third...you miss the point-the reason why i talked about how tech spending is an investment, because investment spending is still low. and that spending, NOT THE CONSUMER, is what drives productivity gains. And productivity gains, AND NOT THE CONSUMER, is what drives long term economic growth. Which was my point in the first place...
Consumption obviously has to take place to direct the market economy, but simply using up resources cannot be the basis of the economy...it is the rate at which we produce resources/products that determines the standard of living.
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Productivity growth is important because it is the main determinant of changes in our standard of living.
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http://www.dallasfed.org/eyi/usecon/0003growth.html
Lets think through this. Labor costs are fixed, short term. Production amounts are not. If demand rises, due to increased consumption, production will rise because each unit is giving additional profit. However, with higher demand comes higher prices. Higher prices demand cost of living adjustments, higher wages. So, the firms aren't making the increased profit...they cut back on production to stay in budget with the pressure of higher wages. End result? Wages up, costs up, real wages equal. No increase of standard of living.
See? Despite the intuitiveness of it, the consumer is not capable of driving real wage gains, only temporary effects.