The Almighty Dollar is replacing our thinking and our hearts, and we are all brainwashed to look for money, everywhere and at any price. I have been very conscious of this destructive philosophy that "Money Talks" and when my son James decided to go back to school in 1995 and take business courses through Athabasca University, I mentioned to him how confusing life can be. And, after reading the preface of his accounting textbook, I showed him an excerpt from this book which stated that ethics is just like navigating an ocean, you choose your own course, that is as to say that ethics is a personal affair, be good, be bad, or be ugly. And now, I ask myself how we can have a vision of where we are going if we follow the money vision within any ethics, be good, be bad or be ugly. It is absurd to have such a vision, to believe to any professor you listen or to believe to any textbook you read. Therefore, I gave James the book "The Fifth Discipline(2)" and I told him that this was going to be his business Bible. And James read this book, and we have been happy ever since!

As I was saying, even Alan Greespan is confused about the notion of economic productivity, and last July, while speaking at the national meeting of American Governors, he stated that

"the major contribution of advances in information technology and their incorporation into the capital stock has been to reduce the number of worker hours required to produce the nation's output, our proxy for productivity growth(3)"

This statement doesn't reflect the experience of the American economy. And American Paul Strassmann, a consultant to some of the largest corporations on the planet(4), has pointed out the following:

"Contrary to expectations of the productivity proponents, the revenue per staff dollar has not increased. It has declined for a period of steady productivity decline from 1989 through 1996. The recent reversals in this productivity trends reflect mergers and consolidations, a strengthening of the dollar currency, and the highest real interest income due to lower inflationary expectations. That has little to do with computerization and much with reorganization and a cyclically favorable state of the economy. The fact is that in 1989 one dollars' worth of staff expense supported $7.50 dollars worth of revenue, whereas seven years later - after a period of sustained computerization - the same dollar supports only about $5.30 of revenue(5)"

Whom to believe? Greenspan or Strassmann? As I am concerned, I believe in my own and shared common sense, and that in our knowledge economy, no matter how sophisticated this economy may be, there will always be low skilled jobs such as cashiers, janitors, retail salespersons, waiters, and waitresses(6). Therefore, productivity, as per capita GDP, is not a relevant indicator for our social and economic growth anymore and this observation is confirmation that we must develop new indicators to measure the performance of our knowledge economy.

Notes/References 

Quote by Donella Meadows "challenging a paradigm is not a part-time job. It is not sufficient to make your point once and then blame the world for not getting it. The world has a vested interest in, a commitment to, not getting it. The point has to be made patiently and repeatedly, day after day after day" ftp://sysdyn.mit.edu/ftp/sdep/Roadmaps/RM1/D-4143-1.pdf The Global Citizen, http://www.tidepool.org/gc/

List of relevant social articles http://www.ftlcomm.com/ensign

1. Money Talks, Mandatory Voting and our Democracy, by Mario deSantis, December 23, 2000 http://www.ftlcomm.com/ensign/desantisArticles/2000_200/desantis293/moneytalks.html

2. The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization, by Peter M. Senge, Currency Doubleday. Books by Peter M. Senge: http://www.pfdf.org/leaderbooks/senge

3. Remarks by Chairman Alan Greenspan, Structural Change In The New Economy, before the National Governors' Association, 92nd Annual Meeting, State College, Pennsylvania, July 11, 2000 http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Technology/allengreenspan.html

4. US consultant recommends measurement of 'knowledge capital' before outsourcing, by Nick Gentle, 10 November, 1999 http://www.strassmann.com/pubs/canberra

5. Facts and Fantasies about Productivity. Excerpted from Information Productivity, by Paul A. Strassmann http://www.strassmann.com/pubs/fnf/factnfantasy.shtml

6. Productivity is the wrong thing to measure, by Mario deSantis, December 25, 2000

You can read about the background of Alan Greenspan at the web site for the Federal Reserve http://www.federalreserve.gov/bios/Greenspan.htm

A simple and straightforward discussion of the issue of knowledge management in the form of an interview with Paul Strassmann http://www.strassmann.com/pubs/kmmag-0499.html

Paul Strassmann's home page http://www.strassmann.com/index.shtml