Volume 28, Number 20 · December 17, 1981
Death by a Thousand Cuts
By Lester C. Thurow
Making America Work: Productivity and Responsibility
by James O'Toole
Continuum, 216 pp., $14.95
Productivity is the gold mine that determines our standard of living and our ability to compete as equals with the rest of the world. Productivity is output per hour of work. If it is rising, there is more economic gold to be divided among us. If productivity growth keeps up with that of our industrial competitors, we can have an equal standard of living and compete on the frontiers of economic activity. Americans will always be able to export; but with productivity falling relative to that of our principal competitors—as it has been—the value of the dollar must continually decline. The country increasingly becomes a relatively low-wage exporter of raw materials and simple manufactured products.
Review, 2896 words
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