From: glhewitt@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Gary Livingston Hewitt)
Newsgroups: alt.politics.bush,alt.politics.clinton,alt.politics.elections
Subject: Re: Democrats: READ it and WEEP!
Summary: I'm not reaching for *my* hanky...
Date: 16 Oct 92 01:22:58 GMT
Organization: Princeton University
Originator: news@nimaster

In article <1992Oct15.204844.25611@meaddata.com> johnt@meaddata.com (John Townsend) writes:
>
>From:  The New York Times
>       October 13, 1992, Tuesday, Late Edition - Final
>
>Headline: U.S. Output Per Worker Called Best
>By: Sylvia Nasar
>
>   A new study of productivity in different countries -- the most
>authoritative comparison to date -- shows that the United States commands a
>significant lead over Europe and Japan in output per worker.
>
>Competition Is Cited
>
>    America's secret productivity weapon, the report concluded, is not bigger
>companies, more robots or even brainier managers. Instead, it is Washington's
>relative reluctance to protect companies from the rigors of competition,
>domestic or foreign.

Of course, Republicans seem congenitally incapable of applying those
same "rigors of competition" to defense industries -- the very
industries that should be leading the way to a tremendously productive
civilian economy, but which instead spend their money lobbying for more
defense contracts -- vowing "close before conversion."
>
>    The study shows that the United States is farthest ahead in the service
>sector, which now employs three out of four American workers.

Making $4.25/hour, of course, but who cares.  America has become a
nation of people selling things to each other, things made in Japan,
Hong Kong, Taiwan, etc.  Big deal -- so the average American worker
creates $40,000 in services at a high rate of productivity -- the
profits accrue to multinationals.
>
>Ultimate Yardstick
>     Productivity  is the ultimate yardstick of international competitiveness.
>It determines not only a nation's standard of living but also status in the
>world. Whether it was Italy from the 13th to 15th centuries, the Netherlands in
>the 18th, England in the 19th or the United States in the 20th, the reigning
>superpower has always been the global productivity leader.
>
>  'We're trying to take the position that competitiveness is not just machinery
>and semiconductors but the entire economy," Professor Baily said. "The service
>sector is terribly important to overall living standards."

To the living standards of some, I guess.

>   General merchandise retailing, for example, is more than twice as efficient
>in the United States as in Japan, largely because Japan's zoning laws save
>mom-and-pop stores from annihilation by the Japanese equivalents of Wal-Mart,
>according to one of five case studies of service industries in the report. And
>the deregulated American telecommunications industry is at least twice as
>productive as Germany's government monopoly, while the fragmented American
>consumer banking industry is a third more efficient than Germany's gargantuan
>banking oligopolies.

Hmmm.  Are 30% of German banks going to go belly-up in the next four
months?  Can you cash a NJ check in California without selling your
soul?  What are capital/asset ratios in German banks?
>
>   The United States has not had to sacrifice consumer choice or quality for
>greater efficiency either, the authors say, citing retail banking and
>telecommunications.

Agreed -- we have a lot of credit cards (and of course, a whole lot of
consumer debt, a low savings rate, and $300bil/year to bail out S&Ls,
another plum of our oh-so-efficient banking system.

>First Place Confirmed?
>
>    Some conservative economists say the report confirms what they have long
>maintained: that the United States is still No. 1. "It's nice when the evidence
>says that what you thought was the case is the case," said John Taylor of
>Stanford University, a former member of President Bush's Council of Economic
>Advisers.

Why, then, does old Mr. Bush say, "it's not my fault we're in a global
slowdown -- times are tough all over."  If we're so great, how come he
hasn't managed to pull us out, and the rest of the world, too?
>   America's competitors, on the other hand, have forgone higher living
>standards for all in order to protect the jobs of some.

Are American living standards all that high, or is the myth of your
evidence.  Look at infant mortality rates, look at communicable disease
rates, look at poverty rates.  The "average" American standard of living
may be higher than elsewhere, but that probably masks the increasing
stratification of wealth, where a few mega-rich make all those poor
people look good.  One person w/ an income of, say, $1mil makes 25
people with $10,000 incomes into an average of $40,000 or so.  Are those
25 people rich?

Anyway.  You get the picture -- I'm as much for economic growth and
investment as the next guy, but I'm not sure that the data backs up your
rosy picture.

Gary
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