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How is productivity affected by rampant population growth? Like a commodity,
the price of labor goes down as the supply goes up. When the price of labor
is cheap, employers are less inclined to invest in labor-saving materials and
equipment, without which, improved productivity is unlikely.
An example: A group of manual laborers, being paid "off the books," are
manually lifting and dropping heavy steel pikes to break up a concrete sidewalk.
If the employer of those workers had to pay legal wages as well as payroll
taxes and workers' compensation, you can bet that employer would have
pneumatic
tools to break up the concrete efficiently.
Aside from the fact that "off the books" workers and their families often
live in poverty and the fact that taxpayers are subsidizing "off the books" employers by paying for their workers' welfare benefits, it is simply unsound
economics to allow "slave wages" to discourage mechanization and innovation.
Necessity, not slavery, is the mother of invention. Only when an industry
finds it is necessary to pay full and fair wages to its employees, will that
industry advance into the 21st Century.
If you know of an organization which is concerned about the effect of rampant
population growth upon the productivity of U.S. industries, including
farming, please click on "Contact Us" and tell us about yourself and about
that
organization.
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