Productivity gains are slowing down at the developed world (and the developing one too). It's a widely discussed phenomenon on economics cycles, and mostly people seem to have no idea why that is happening.
>Productivity gains are slowing down at the developed world (and the developing one too). It's a widely discussed phenomenon on economics cycles, and mostly people seem to have no idea why that is happening.
I moved to western Europe and realized why. Millennials there don't want to take part in the competitive rat race to be productive as their boomer parents have bought plenty of properties when real estate was cheap and salaries were high enough that even a factory worker in the 70's could afford a large apartment. They will later inherit said properties so they feel no pressure to get into high stress jobs since they are basically taken care of for life. So why bother?
The only people I know who are constantly grinding and hustling here are immigrants who don't own any real estate so they're constantly working to afford to get on the property ladder.
There's a nice US graph here: https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/productivity#hist...
An OECD study that goes up to 2005: http://www.oecd.org/employment/labour-stats/41354425.pdf