Canadian productivity at its usual crawl

 

Productivity is economic output (wealth) per worker hour.  It starts with a man and a stick for ploughing the ground to plant.  Then we go up from there.  We are on a rock-steady straight line of increasing productivity.  Use a shovel, get a horse, tractor, etc.  

In the office we had one person and a rubber stamp.  Have we gone much beyond that?  The problem is that throughout history, productivity increases have threatened jobs, but does it really?  You do more things, and no jobs are ever eliminated.

In Canada, we do not embrace productivity improvements.  We have unions (and leftwingers) who drag their feet for everything.  I am buying stuff direct from China, and it costs one fifth of anything made here.  In fact, I think they are holding up the price because of demand.  Is there any use to going to 1 tenth?

Also in Canada, there is tendency to whip the workers to get productivity.  That doesn't work.  I'm just rambling here.  We need all new approaches and we need to 'eat our own children', in terms of inefficiency.  Not happening, so things are going to have to get much worse in the cycle, so we can build up again.

The first great destruction will be in housing.  It has to crash to one quarter.  But it won't because it is being held up.  Is that productivity?  Again, we have to wait.  We are building transit that doesn't work, and will never be needed.  All wasted money, like windmills and solar put our productivity back down to the stick level.  Ontario is building baby reactors  -- really?