Source: Adam Smith Institute
by Madsen Pirie
“Britain has a productivity problem, and it is one of our own making. Before the financial crash of 2008, output per hour grew by roughly 2 per cent a year. Since then it has crawled along at about half that rate, sometimes less. The gap with America, France and Germany has widened year after year. That matters more than almost anything else in economics. Productivity pays for higher wages, better public services and a comfortable retirement. A country that stops growing more productive stops growing richer. Its politics turn sour, because every gain for one group must come out of another’s pocket. The comforting story is that some deep mystery is at work, a curse visited on Britain by forces beyond anyone’s control. This is nonsense. Britain made it hard to build, costly to power and unrewarding to invest. The results were entirely predictable.” (10/07/26)
https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/britains-productivity-problem-is-a-choice