BRUCE E. W.

On the Relationship Between Worker Productivity and Layoffs

The study of nurse staffing to patient ratios demonstrate conclusively that not only will productivity be exploited progressively but that cost expenditures are minimized to the detriment of the quality of care itself. All this while profit margins become core concerns. The neverending pursuit of pure profit is inevitably matched to a relentless pursuit of cost reduction. While this sounds good on paper, in the market of the real world it means burnt out loyal workers strapped to a daily personal liquidity crisis and it just as often reults in cheaper products and watered down quality assurance. The "sweatshop" mentality of our market economy has been legitimated and justified by the "price" theory of market incentives. The problem is that no one at the top levels seem to realize that one persons' price is another persons' cost.

Outsourcing had taken this around the world and kept a consumer price index reasonably aligned with demand. Even then, however, American Labor was damaged and it became a political football (along with migrant worker scapegoating). Now the room is full and it has turned on a stratified society that can no longer indulge itself in denial. Even if the gross numbers of static economy can be twisted to appear to justify the "wealth" building financial stealth of our economy, the future dynamics of an American household "Standard of Living" will decline proportionately.