Anthony Albanese pointed to a new economic vision in a major speech which also set guard rails for his upcoming negotiation on tariffs with US President Donald Trump.
Productivity isn’t great because of the kinds of jobs the people of this nation increasingly do, and likely will do for the foreseeable future.
And, sorry if this comes across a bit morbid. Until the baby boomers shuffle off this mortal coil in greater numbers, any serious productivity gains in certain industries are overtaken by the medical, care, and other old-age related, usually low productivity, work the country is providing.
Its because of this, that i’m sceptical that ‘productivity’ is a good measure to be relying on so heavily to gain an honest understanding of the working economy.
Edit: sorry, my point in saying this is, i don’t think we should be as hung up on low productivity. No matter who is the Government, theres the same demographic reality. Yhe economic settings and feedback need to be designed to cater for that, that means less of the industrial-output mindset that delivers productivity as a key measure of success.
The constant chase of productivity increases can make sense, but only if you’re not trying to increase output at the same rate.
We should be trying to reduce the total amount of work done, while increasing the quality of life of all Australians. If that is the goal then productivity increases are a win for everyone.
Productivity isn’t great because of the kinds of jobs the people of this nation increasingly do, and likely will do for the foreseeable future.
And, sorry if this comes across a bit morbid. Until the baby boomers shuffle off this mortal coil in greater numbers, any serious productivity gains in certain industries are overtaken by the medical, care, and other old-age related, usually low productivity, work the country is providing.
Its because of this, that i’m sceptical that ‘productivity’ is a good measure to be relying on so heavily to gain an honest understanding of the working economy.
Edit: sorry, my point in saying this is, i don’t think we should be as hung up on low productivity. No matter who is the Government, theres the same demographic reality. Yhe economic settings and feedback need to be designed to cater for that, that means less of the industrial-output mindset that delivers productivity as a key measure of success.
The constant chase of productivity increases can make sense, but only if you’re not trying to increase output at the same rate.
We should be trying to reduce the total amount of work done, while increasing the quality of life of all Australians. If that is the goal then productivity increases are a win for everyone.