On Thu, 8 May 2008 23:31:45 +0200, "John of Aix"
wrote:
>Jim Ley wrote:
>> - but it also
>> has a very small labour force and I don't feel it's reasonable to
>> count productivity and ignore the productivity of the non-working who
>> are being supported by the workers.
>
>That is also the way it is calculated. Any other way would mean that
>countries with larger populations would automatically have higher
>productivity than smaller ones. Like any figure it is counted per
>person, per thousand etc.
Erm, no it could be counted per member of the potentially economic
active people (say everyone 16-65) rather than just the employed, that
would make a lot more sense as it would take account of productivity
linked to unemployment, better training through more education, or
early retirement or whatever. But just looking at the employed is not
a fair, it's inevitable that if you remove the most incompetent
workers from the workpool productivity will go up. I'd contend that
that is not a good thing, it means they have to be supported other
ways, and leads to crime and other anti-social behaviour.
Jim. |