The reference to ‘productivity’ in the article ‘Zombie Nation’ (E&T, February 2022) illustrates the danger of assuming that one discipline’s understanding of a term is the same as another’s.
For engineers, ‘productivity’ translates into the number of objects output per person, and an increase means making more in your shift. When politicians refer to ‘productivity’ they mean economic productivity, or contribution to GDP (gross domestic product), an increase in which means people spending more on goods and services.
While there is some alignment, the optima do not coincide. Ultimately the economy depends on people spending their income, and the credit that their employment enables. Industry’s role is to create goods and services that people require, but also to provide people with wages. The economy is dependent on us all ‘consuming’, so saving wages in a bank or a pension fund is not economically productive.
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