Australia’s productivity problem may be impossible to measure
https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/australias-productivity-problem-may-be-impossible-to-measure,21644Open linkView original on aussie.zoneSyndicated from the fediverse. Read and engage on the original instance.
View original on aussie.zonehttps://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/australias-productivity-problem-may-be-impossible-to-measure,21644Open linkView original on aussie.zone
12 replies
Capital which is invested in a non productive asset (housing, land) is also capital that doesn’t go into productive business investment. Those costs are forced on to people or businesses that don’t have an option to switch anywhere. I think a flow on effect is that disposable incomes and margins are eaten up and get recycled into choking the supply even harder. If everyone’s skimming then there’s nothing left for improving productivity. In my mind this is like a motor that only has a certain amount of torque and each middle man is piling on a tiny amount of weight. Eventually it seizes up
Well, when there are productivity gains, there's no pay rises and the bulk goes to the corporation profits.
So, where is the incentive to be more productive?
Seen a while ago on the Fediverse:
we are shareholders…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superannuation_in_Australia
True, but at best 12%, or about 1/8th.
7/8ths goes to....not you!
i know exactly where the money goes as our company is public which means every year they release a financial report and i can see the companies financials
marketindex.com.au has been great for this
for example if you want to see what bega is up to just go here https://www.marketindex.com.au/asx/bga?src=search-all then scroll down and click
21/10/2026 2026 Annual General Meeting Presentation $
voila!
https://www.marketindex.com.au/asx/bga/announcements/2026-annual-general-meeting-presentation-3A704543
now because i’m lazy head over to betashares direct
It’s a great year! After losing 8.5 million last year they’ve made 54 million this year! hurray!
You can then lookup in the report what they’re spending the money on
I’ve had a pay a raise every year since 2018, if i wasn’t getting pay raises i would have left
Congrats. You are probably better off than most. Did your pay rises exceed the inflation rate?
But to get back to productivity more broadly rather than one company and one employee at that company:
Productivity has grown, so why have wages not kept up?
"So, who is getting the benefits of productivity growth? You guessed it. Instead of flowing to workers as higher wages, business is capturing the gains from productivity growth as profit."
i don’t look at the inflation rate as a direct comparison for my pay rate because for example if education goes up that’s no impact on me, diesel prices doubling and tripling has had no impact on me (i drive an ev), electricity price rises have no impact as i have solar and solar battery, I live a pretty frugal life to a degree
Has it?
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-28/productivity-commission-growth-report/105336036
afaik productivity has been stalled for ages
the construction sector, one of the most well compensated sectors if not these most well compensated has been going backwards for years
We don't have a productivity problem when viewed through a human lens, rather than the absurd idea there must always be "growth".
We have a problem that that excess productivity has been captured by those who already have amassed wealth, to grow it even further.
Our massive productivity gains have been eaten up by the billionaire/owner class.
Does no one seem to remember that you used to be able to support a family of 5 on one modest income?
Now people can barely support a couple of 2 with two fairly good incomes.
The problem is inequality and ever increasing wealth of the rich, who then use that outsized influence over legislation and regulation so that they can amass even more.
We have a capitalism problem where our excess value is being stolen.
This idea that we need to fix our productivity is a strawman in my opinion.
This is so true. And just to further the point, productivity has gone up. Many jobs are faster & easier & take less time and fewer people to do. So more stuff is getting done per work hour. And yet, as you say, its somehow harder to afford cost of living on the pay of those work hours. So where is all that extra productivity going?
A lot of it goes to waste, possibly 'undervalued' by market distortions. (For example, tech like phones and laptops and TVs, take huge amounts of work to create - but are somehow relatively cheap. A low-cost wireless mouse costs about as much as buying lunch. That's pretty weird considering what's involved. The churn of using and replacing that stuff is sucking up a lot of productivity behind the scenes.) But yeah, the bigger effect is growing inequality. Ultra wealthy people and company sucking up all the profits from our productivity; and spending it on... well, a lot of stuff. One example that comes to mind is the enormous amount of resources going into building and running data centres at the moment. Land, water, raw materials, basic labour, skilled labour... and some promise that it is all going to be worth it, but right now its essentially just our collective wealth getting poured into machines that are currently doing more harm than good. It's a level of resource tradeoff that no normal person would make. But at the ultra-wealthy top, the cost doesn't matter so much to them, and the benefits including locking people into a cycle of dependency - so that the owners can say at the top unchallenged. It's not hard to see how that's a good deal for them, but not for anyone else.
Yeah media will skirt around the real problem for ever if they can. Now the new term is "money circulation"