Produttività e crescita economica: paradosso o contraddizione reale?

Despite weak productivity dynamics, the capitalist economy is still experiencing residual economic growth. This residue depends on the greater intensity of use of the factors, especially the labor. In terms of growth accounting, the average rate of change in value added is the sum of the average rate of change in hours worked and productivity (complementary). If one of the two factors decrease, to keep growth at least constant, the other must increase. The long-term negative trend of labor productivity shows that the crisis that broke out in 2007-08 was not just financial, but real. After a long phase of even spectacular increases, the productivity – in terms of its rates of change - was decreasing since the second half of the '70s and, except for a brief recovery, it fails to ensure a robust economic growth. To waves of technological innovations, it follows an increase in productivity, which generally corresponds to the reduction in hours worked; when the wave withdraws, the hours worked stop decreasing. Productivity by itself is not the purpose of the capitalists, but one of the means for increasing surplus-value: in Marxian terms, "From one standpoint, any distinction between absolute and relative surplus-value appears illusory". The conclusion that can be drawn is that the dynamic to which Marx refers in Capital should not be considered as a historical unicum, but as a general trend, with a succession of cycles that are repeated, albeit with different time frames and with progressively smaller effects, even in contemporary capitalism.