In the longer term, and at the risk of doing some violence to the wealth of economic research on the subject, productivity is heavily dependent on one key factor -- the quality of our human resources. Living standards rise on the back of overall educational attainment and attitudes. That implies a continuing need to raise the quality of our general educational effort.
It means raising the numbers participating in higher education. It means improved on-the-job training. It means better-trained managers able to make smarter decisions and provide improved management of our work force -- in the forest, on the factory floor, in the research laboratories, within both the public and private sectors. And it means smarter governance from within the nation’s boardrooms.