Re: Economic Rent in Terms of Risk Free Interest Rate

ruetheday@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:

Employment isn't labor. There is significant political
interest in maintaining rates of employment, ala
Bismarck.



So you contend that most of the people employed today are engaged in
unproductive make-work engineered by political forces that in no way
benefits the employer?





In vast number. Most of this make-work is disguised as
regulation or compliance. Some of it is simple
headcount obsession. Some of it is just bad
workflow engineering.



Technological progress and automation do not eliminate the need for a
labor force.  We've heard that prediction for centuries now and it
never comes to pass.


It doesn't converge to zero, but year by year,
automation is an increasing fraction of
production.

We don't have to know the exact point of
convergence, just whether or not the
slope is positive or negative.

The *relative* effect of LVT would be that of
a subsidy to labor, in a climate of declining
demand. There's not a clear pattern of what
happens then, but one possibility is a
sort of positive feedback cycle, with cost
increasing rapidly. The other is a
negative feedback cycle, with labor losing
any market value at all.

We don't know what happens with LVT except
in fast-growth situations, like Hong
Kong or Japan, over times when those are relevant.

> And I highly doubt that the existence of most 
jobs in the economy are due to "regulation, compliance, headcount
obsession, and bad workflow engineering".  Well, perhaps the latter,
but as a consultant I'm biased.  ;-)


If not most, a great many. I've worked for two companies
in the past where less than ten percent of the company
actually *did* anything. Those are doubtless
extreme examples.


It, of course, depends. How do you think the last five years'
magickal "productivity gains" happened? This fraction has
been reduced.



Have those productivity gains evaporated as the labor market recovered
over the past couple of years?


I don't think so, but it's not widely reported. A very good
question. And *has* the job market actually recovered?



Please note I said *marginal* factor - this
according to Drucker as  a direct component
of COGS.




Perhaps in the modern industrial world, the traditional accounting
measure of COGS underrepresents labor's contribution to output.  IOW,
in an environment where most workers are not involved in the _direct_
production of widgets or whatever else their employer happens to sell,
the traditional classification of their labor as "overhead" isn't
entirely accurate because it does not recognize the fact that their labor
does in some way allow the company to produce and sell more.





Mismeasure is always a possibility, but from years
of watching people work, I beleive the claim that
labor is a declining fraction.



The way that labor is employed has changed, but the need for labor has
not.


That's also very true. Ironically, job growth has been strongest
in trades and stuff related to the housing boom.

Again, the metric I'm using is human labor input
in units of manhours per widget produced. *That*
fraction still declines.

--
Les Cargill

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: OT: Gary Carson is PRO-death penalty
    ... Thanks to the commie labor movement employees in the US do have ... The worker owes EVERYTHING to the employer. ... What will hurt the workers most, ... dedicated to the propagation of itself, the labor unions have grown. ...
    (rec.gambling.poker)
  • Re: From E3 to GC
    ... certification to the labor department. ... the wages and working conditions of other U.S. workers in similar ... For most foreign nationals, the labor certification process, which is ... filed by the employer with USCIS. ...
    (misc.immigration.usa)
  • Re: Cooperating in systems of oppression
    ... gets benefit from their labor" then all labor is exploited: ... The amount I pay him is less ... And there's a huge increment between the amount you have to pay someone so that they show up and do their job rather than dropping out or living on the dole or whatever and the amount that their labor is worth to the employer. ...
    (soc.singles.moderated)
  • Re: Economic Rent in Terms of Risk Free Interest Rate
    ... >> unproductive make-work engineered by political forces that in no way ... obsession, and bad workflow engineering". ... Have those productivity gains evaporated as the labor market recovered ... >> production of widgets or whatever else their employer happens to sell, ...
    (sci.econ)
  • Re: Economic Rent in Terms of Risk Free Interest Rate
    ... >> labor force. ... >> obsession, and bad workflow engineering". ...
    (sci.econ)