Productivity and living standards edited
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Productivity and Living Standards
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Productivity and Living Standards
Productivity refers to how efficient and effective a country utilizes its labour and capital
to ensure more output. It is a measure of the ratio of output to input. (Reenen, 2018). Therefore,
when the output is greater than the input, productivity increases and vice versa.
Governments in many countries are trying to raise the living standards of citizens by supporting
their businesses, reducing taxes, imposing investments, improving the health care and education
system, among others (Burrowes & Shannon, 2021). However, inadequate capital and limited
resources have frustrated their actions in that most countries are in debt, and productivity is very
low.
If I were polled, I would recommend the creation of more employment opportunities. In
my opinion, unemployment is the source of major problems that citizens face in the United
States. For instance, without any source of income, citizens cannot afford education, health care,
food, among other needs. Reports indicate that an average of forty percent of students in the
United States of America has dropped out of school (Medina, Gracia, & Puig, 2020). This
percentage could be made of other factors such as lack of interest, but hugely, it is because of
lack of school fees since their parents and guardians cannot afford it. In addition to that, the rate
of crime increases because everyone is trying to earn a living. The graph of unemployment rises
annually, and so do death rates due to inaccessibility of health care, school dropouts,
malnutrition among children, and crime rates, all of which indicate a positive correlation.
However, the government has ignored this sector and instead, political interventions seek
alternatives such as providing every US citizen above eighteen years of age with a thousand
dollars every month. The opportunity cost would be the investment that could be made to
increase employment opportunities rather than providing this money to its citizens. Potential
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unintended consequences include laziness among citizens because they will be awaiting the
monthly governmental aid and reduced productivity. No one will be willing to work extra hard
knowing that the government will provide them with a thousand dollars at the end of the month.
References
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Burrowes, K., & Shannon, J. (2021, March 08). pwc. Retrieved October 16, 2021, from Google
chrome: https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/issues/reinventing-the-future/take-ontomorrow/government-challenges.html
Medina, T. D., Gracia, L. N., & Puig, E. B. (2020, October 28). worldbank. Retrieved October
16, 2021, from Google chrome: https://blogs.worldbank.org/latinamerica/how-cancountries-support-economic-growth-and-improve-living-standards-across-all
Reenen, V. (2018, May 07). tutor2u. Retrieved October 16, 2021, from Google chrome:
https://www.tutor2u.net/economics/reference/productivity-and-economic-growth
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