Wednesday, January 28, 2004

Who profits from productivity?

Speaking of "the jobless recovery," the Washington Post weighed in yesterday with this astonishing editorial that marks a new low point in the s descent into genuine hackery of the paper's editorial page:
Moreover, a jobless recovery means, by definition, that each worker is producing more. Higher productivity, in turn, is the best promise possible of higher wages and employment in the future. ...

... But the winners will outnumber the losers, because the adjustment creates new efficiencies. Each worker can produce more, meaning that he or she can be paid more. Do the Democrats really mean to oppose that?

Of course, workers typically are not paid more as productivity rises. Most often the increased margins go toward paying for ever-escalating executive compensation.

In other words, the bosses pocket the profits, while the workers work harder and produce more for the same pay. Everyone who has ever been a regular employee knows this is how it works.

Brad DeLong deconstructs this nonsense limb from limb.

[Link via Atrios.]

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