I agree with you totally. The focus should be on increasing wealth through more production of everything.
Somehow we've ended up in a situation where everyone focuses on job creation at the expense of everything else.
Right now most families need two parents working in order to provide. I think many would be happier with one less parent working if they could maintain the same standard of living. That would be possible if one of the parents doubled their productivity. Yes, it's a crude example but shows that focusing on jobs, and jobs only is looking at the wrong metric.
Counting jobs is as foolish as counting lines of code developed rather than the output of the code. But because each job is attached to a person, we've all become blinkered to it, like a PHB counting lines of code and assuming progress is being made.
Wealth creation is simply the process of creating a better life through a combination of hard work and technology. When you live better you're more wealthy.
Unfortunately, just about every initiative I have seen from any government for the last 10 years has been about job creation, when wealth creation isn't even considered, or, if it is, in a distasteful manner, usually coupled with some reference to greed and profit. But the only way to create real jobs is to create wealth that people will willingly exchange their own labor for.
That wouldn't help. People's expectations for standard of living would rise, and both parents would continue working just to keep up with the Joneses.
Furthermore, in most families the main reason for needing dual incomes is to pay for housing. Increasing productivity does nothing for affordable housing. Real estate prices tend to rise right along with average incomes.
The one-parent-quitting description is to show that the same amount of output/production/work can happen with half the people if they are twice as productive. This is to show that increased productivity (more product, same amount of work) is more important than jobs.
Increased productivity gives more of everything for everyone. We all know this to be true - if you spend all day napping in the sun, you get nothing achieved. If you spend all day working, you can get many things achieved.
Somehow we've ended up in a situation where everyone focuses on job creation at the expense of everything else.
Right now most families need two parents working in order to provide. I think many would be happier with one less parent working if they could maintain the same standard of living. That would be possible if one of the parents doubled their productivity. Yes, it's a crude example but shows that focusing on jobs, and jobs only is looking at the wrong metric.
Counting jobs is as foolish as counting lines of code developed rather than the output of the code. But because each job is attached to a person, we've all become blinkered to it, like a PHB counting lines of code and assuming progress is being made.
Wealth creation is simply the process of creating a better life through a combination of hard work and technology. When you live better you're more wealthy.
Unfortunately, just about every initiative I have seen from any government for the last 10 years has been about job creation, when wealth creation isn't even considered, or, if it is, in a distasteful manner, usually coupled with some reference to greed and profit. But the only way to create real jobs is to create wealth that people will willingly exchange their own labor for.