From: reed@rd02.wg2.waii.com (Michael Reed)
Newsgroups: tx.politics
Subject: Re: Worker Productivity
Date: 12 Oct 92 17:02:11 GMT
Reply-To: reed@rd08.wg2.waii.com
Distribution: usa,tx
Organization: Western Geophysical Research & Development

In article <21697@rpp386.lonestar.org>, jfh@rpp386.lonestar.org (John F. Haugh II) writes:
|> In article <1516@airgun.wg.waii.com> reed@rd08.wg2.waii.com writes:
|> >One surprise is Germany's low ranking.  The six weeks vacation that
|> >every employee in Germany is mandated by law might have something to
|> >do with that.  It just shows you that worker productivity and economic
|> >success and necessarily correlated.
|> 
|> I =knew= there was something else wrong with this statement when I
|> first looked at it.  This paragraph is what it is.  Notice that the
|> statistics that were given do not appear to be PER HOUR statistics,
|> but rather some "per year" figure.
|> 
|> 

Whoops, my analysis of the low German productivity was WRONG.  Looking
again at my chart, (1991 World Almanac, page 156) I see the heading
"Output per Hour"

I repeat, John, "Output per Hour".  And as far as it being only
manufacturing production, the footnote says:

	The data relate to all employed persons (wage & salary, 
	the self-employed, and unpaid family workers) in the
        U.S. and Canada, and all employees (wage & salary earners)
	in the other countries.

Now, I know what John's rebuttal will be next.  He will say,
"See, it is an unfair comparison, we are including workers
in our statistics that others are not."  Of course, those
self-employed workers are notorious for the poor productivity
lowering the average for everyone.  Oh, I think John is self-employed!
It must be the unpaid family workers...

I agree that these statistics may not reflect the true picture, but
until you can offer something other than just an assertion that
American workers are the most productive, John, I will have
to go by what I have these.

|> The answer is simple - America Bashing is fashionable.

No, I am very optimistic about America.  That's why I will most likely
vote for George Bush.  No where else in the world is it easier to
translate hard work into a better quality of life.  The problem here
is that we got lazy when we were on top.  Things are happening now to
wake us up.  Parent realize they have to get involved for their
children to learn better.  Corporations realize they have to work
harder to turn out better products.  With low interest rates, low
inflation, low business costs and higher savings rates by families,
the table is set for some long term, solid economic growth.  We were
the first economy to go into this world-wide recession, and we will
lead the way out.  I only hope massive government spending by
Clinton and pals doesn't start up the high inflation,
high interest rate cycle all over again.


-- 
The above are my own opinions and mine alone.

*****************************************************************************
Dr. Michael Reed,
Western Geophysical, Research and Development Group
reed@rd08.wg2.waii.com
(713) 964-6322                     FAX: (713) 964-6372
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