One of the basic claims is that the rise in IT fueled the huge increase in productivity in the US over the past two decades. This is certainly an important factor for things like back office record keeping, transaction process and supply chain management. [...] But the aspect of the economy which has been ignored in the calculation is the shift from making physical "stuff" to dealing in information. A factory worker running a machine in an auto plant can just do so much per hour. Even when replaced by robots there are still limitations. So his productivity has a limit.
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But the aspect of the economy which has been ignored in the calculation is the shift from making physical "stuff" to dealing in information. A factory worker running a machine in an auto plant can just do so much per hour. Even when replaced by robots there are still limitations. So his productivity has a limit.
No one ever cares to check the statistics, but at least in this country it's in the industry where producutivity has increased most strongly, far quicker than in the private or public service sectors.
The logical conclusion of this is of course that the politicians do everything to destroy our industry and instead promote the "service" sector. Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
Also don't the industries you mentioned, in Sweden, generally produce for speciality and other niche markets where quality is important?
In principle, a factory might need no workers at all. Would worker productivity then be infinite, the denominator having become zero? Words and ideas I offer here may be used freely and without attribution.
The business press is full of these gee-whiz, feel-good, statistics.
