So today, as I receive the news that Bill Jensen has written a new book, I am impressed of his understanding to debunk this average productivity myth. Jensen points out that while corporate productivity is increasing so the work for employees has been getting harder as at least 29% of the work force are working longer than 49 hours per week. And I am impressed about Jensen's emphasis on the use of the words "personal productivity" and "respect."

Yes, we need an economic growth compatible with the conceptual understanding of these two words "personal productivity" and "respect" so that we don't perpetuate an economic growth for the benefits of our fortunate sons and at the expense of everybody else. And in fact, in the last ten years the CEO's compensation increased by 571% while the minimum wage stayed practically the same.

Now think of the American conventional economic hypocrisy as business leaders measure the country's economic welfare on the basis of Forbes' list of billionaires and the extent of Bush's tax cuts.

We have to be thankful to those economists who are more concerned about people's lives than corporate productivity, and who, above all, bring their voices not in their specialized economic journals but in the arena of public discourse. And among such economists I am happy to mention Paul Krugman, Dean Baker and Mark Weisbrot. All of these economists are concerned about the implausibility of an American immediate economic recovery at a time of a chronic trade deficit, huge foreign debt and governmental deficit.

Paul Krugman says that

we need $1.2 billion in [foreign] capital inflows every day to cover our foreign-trade deficit and he wonders how this can happen with our recent stories on Enron, aggressive accounting, budget deficits, steel tariffs, the farm bill, F.B.I. bungling.

We must get rid of the non sense economic growth based on wishful thinking, in not mentioning the letter R for recession, in demanding good attitudes and more hours of work from employees.

Dean Baker is disgusted about president Bush's agenda to combat the axis of evil abroad and to further additional tax breaks for the rich at home and says:

With the recent scandals and miscues, the President is no longer Winston Churchill or Franklin Roosevelt, he is once again the bungler from Texas who finished second in the presidential race.

Mark Weisbrot is equally disgusted as Baker and says

President Bush's teflon coating, may finally be fading. The discovery that there were numerous warning signs leading up to the massacre of September 11, that went unheeded, could mark the beginning of a Great Unraveling.

President Bush is a resilient person and he will not unravel easily his teflon coating as he is embracing the help of additional billionaires around the world, this time Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

References

Productivity definition Industry Canada http://canadianeconomy.gc.ca/english/economy/productivity.html

SimplerWork Report 6 Bill Jensen, May 2002 http://www.simplerwork.com/newsletter/Report-6.htm

And CEO Pay Rises at No-tax Firms with Corporate Tax Rebates United for a Fair Economy http://ufenet.org/CEOPay/

Where's the Boom? By PAUL KRUGMAN, The New York Times, May 28, 2002 http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/28/opinion/28KRUG.html?todaysheadlines

ATTACK OF THE CLOWNS: THE REAL BUSH IS BACK Dean Baker, Center for Economic and Policy Research, May 23, 2002 http://www.cepr.net/columns/baker/attack_of_the_clowns.htm

BUSH ADMINISTRATION SCANDALS: THE BEGINNING OF THE END? Mark Weisbrot, Center for Economic and Policy Research, May 23, 2002 http://www.cepr.net/columns/weisbrot%20II/bushscandals.htm