mellowtigger (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mellowtigger) wrote2011-03-19 09:38 pm
mellowtigger) wrote2011-03-19 09:38 pm
Entry tags:
efficiency and the economy
I recently read an article from that "post-autistic economics" movement that I mention occasionally. It spoke plainly about an idea that I hadn't considered in quite the same terms before.
I think they're trying to tie "efficiency" to the often used economics term "productivity". I doubt the common wisdom of measuring economic health in terms of worker productivity, and I blame the efficiency game for some of that error. While I think that efficiency and productivity are related, I'm having a hard time isolating what exactly they are in my mind, how they differ, and why I feel this confusion in the first place. Do my readers have any ideas?
I agree that it's wise to "keep something in reserve". As I've been saying recently, I disapprove of conditions that require workers to "wear too many hats". Or, in yet another common phrase, "jack of all trades, but master of none". I think there's a long-term danger in keeping people so busy that they can't either rest (stockpiling for the next surge) or experiment (learning for the next new scenario).
I think I'm trying to figure out the Virtues Of Inefficiency. I think that dictatorship is a lot more efficient than democracy... but surely there are virtues to be found in such inefficiencies? I don't know. Thoughts aren't flowing well tonight.
"The Efficiency Myth"
Efficiency, it seems, is entirely contextual. ... So I hate efficiency because it feels and looks like a fool’s game. I say keep something in reserve. Because you never know. ... The problem is that other people adore efficiency. But uncertainty is relentless. And the past no map for the future. So learning and adaptation are necessary for survival or growth. Whereas efficiency allows for neither.
- http://rwer.wordpress.com/2011/03/16/the-efficiency-myth/
Efficiency, it seems, is entirely contextual. ... So I hate efficiency because it feels and looks like a fool’s game. I say keep something in reserve. Because you never know. ... The problem is that other people adore efficiency. But uncertainty is relentless. And the past no map for the future. So learning and adaptation are necessary for survival or growth. Whereas efficiency allows for neither.
- http://rwer.wordpress.com/2011/03/16/the-efficiency-myth/
I think they're trying to tie "efficiency" to the often used economics term "productivity". I doubt the common wisdom of measuring economic health in terms of worker productivity, and I blame the efficiency game for some of that error. While I think that efficiency and productivity are related, I'm having a hard time isolating what exactly they are in my mind, how they differ, and why I feel this confusion in the first place. Do my readers have any ideas?
I agree that it's wise to "keep something in reserve". As I've been saying recently, I disapprove of conditions that require workers to "wear too many hats". Or, in yet another common phrase, "jack of all trades, but master of none". I think there's a long-term danger in keeping people so busy that they can't either rest (stockpiling for the next surge) or experiment (learning for the next new scenario).
I think I'm trying to figure out the Virtues Of Inefficiency. I think that dictatorship is a lot more efficient than democracy... but surely there are virtues to be found in such inefficiencies? I don't know. Thoughts aren't flowing well tonight.
no subject
There are lots of virtues in inefficiency:
redundancy provides excess capacity for when things go tits up. The more efficient "just-in-time" supply chain means that auto plants in Ohio get shut down because of earthquakes in japan. Having more people employed than than you need means your people can take vacations, get sick, or even be trained.
Having overqualified people doing a job is "inefficient" but if something unexpected happens they're much more likely to be able to respond positively.
Hiring a hundred guys with picks and shovels to dig a ditch is more expensive and takes longer than hiring one guy with a backhoe but produces much more secondary economic growth and invests them all in the project emotionally.
no subject
Quantifying Sustainability: Resilience, Efficiency and the Return of Information Theory.
http://www.lietaer.com/2010/02/quantifying-sustainability/