>But practically, isn't productivity actually about adding more value per
>unit of work time *paid for?* In that sense, it is up; it's not
>overstated. In which case Mr. Roach may have put his finger on exactly
>where the rise in productivity comes from and how the information
>revolution makes it possible. It's made it possible to get more unpaid
>work out of people.
That's exploitation, not productivity!
The bourgeois line is that higher productivity will lead to higher living standards. If there were a productivity miracle underway, we should be enjoying a great wage boom (and a loosening of fiscal stringency). We're seeing higher real wages, but no boom, and continued fiscal strigency. Corporate profitability (in the national income accounts) peaked in 1996 or 1997, so there's no evidence of a productivity miracle there either. The major effect of the "productivity boom" so far has been in the ideological realm, where U.S.-style k'ism is enjoying great prestige.
Doug