20th Mar 2008
Lessons from the World’s Most General Graph
This is the most general graph I’ve seen in a while (go ahead, check out), but I think it actually illustrates a key point of work in the United States, namely, that productivity on a national scale isn’t necessarily related to wage growth on a national scale.
Now, I’ve written before that I have some big issues with granting rights to people based on their productivity at work, and I have big issues with measuring individual productivity. But there are decent ways of measuring national productivity in terms of money and overall units generated and there are decent ways of measuring wages.
So note how the myth of meritocracy seems relevant as you look at this graph that shows national productivity increasing while wages remain relatively stagnant. Many of us are under the impression that if we work harder, faster, longer, more productive in some way, that we will demonstrate our merit to our boss and be justly rewarded with a wage increase. Certainly on a national level, generally speaking, this is not happening.
Yet, the Protestant work ethic is ingrained so deeply in many of us.
It runs contrary to logic, but it has become a cancerous growth upon the United States.
I’ve begun to think that many of us need a moment in our lives when things sort of “click” and we understand this myth. For me it was being laid off from a pretty decent job. After that, everything sort of unraveled in terms of my own Protestant work ethic and notion that the harder I work, the better I’ll do (and closer I’ll get to heaven, I suppose). But it’s hard not to slip back into the Protestant Work Ethic mode.
I never believe meritocracy existed across our country, I always believed it was an ideal we should work towards. I am confused by people who do not believe it is an ideal we should work towards.
The protestant work ethic was never part of my understanding of meritocracy. Actually, my understanding of mertiocracy is completely different: I am paid purely for production. If I can produce the job you need in 2 hours, and Bob does it in 8 hours…shouldn’t I get paid the same for my 2-hours of work as Bob does for 8-hours of work? To me, the ideal of meritocracy moves away from a Protestant work ethic and into one of results.