MarxSchmarx
16th August 2008, 21:29
I was reading through revleft earlier today and came across what looked like a common theme, and about which there seems to be much confusion about - namely, how does one measure service sector productivity? I did a google search on this, and it seems to be an open question for academics as well.
I guess I'll start. With self-employed service workers, like barbers, it's pretty easy - number of heads shaved/number of hours worked, where the number of heads shaved is normalized to account for fluctuations in the customer volume (say, per year, per day, per recession, whatever).
But with service workers employed by capitalists? Well it still seems a similar metric holds, like how many floors a cleaning team can clean per hour, or how many tables a server can wait on when the restaurant is at full capacity.
But these are too crude. For instance, a surly waiter can probably be more "productive" than a pleasant easy-going one, but who will have maximized customer satisfaction (and likelihood of return business?) Should it therefore be measured in money (or surplus value?) generated over some amount of time? But what about more difficult to quantify things, like the difference between cleaning a place that earns 99% rating versus the satisfaction of a 100% rating from the public health department?
So I'm curious to hear more counter-examples and "tough calls" by comrades, as well as whether or not our measurement of service sector "productivity" will change under socialism.
I guess I'll start. With self-employed service workers, like barbers, it's pretty easy - number of heads shaved/number of hours worked, where the number of heads shaved is normalized to account for fluctuations in the customer volume (say, per year, per day, per recession, whatever).
But with service workers employed by capitalists? Well it still seems a similar metric holds, like how many floors a cleaning team can clean per hour, or how many tables a server can wait on when the restaurant is at full capacity.
But these are too crude. For instance, a surly waiter can probably be more "productive" than a pleasant easy-going one, but who will have maximized customer satisfaction (and likelihood of return business?) Should it therefore be measured in money (or surplus value?) generated over some amount of time? But what about more difficult to quantify things, like the difference between cleaning a place that earns 99% rating versus the satisfaction of a 100% rating from the public health department?
So I'm curious to hear more counter-examples and "tough calls" by comrades, as well as whether or not our measurement of service sector "productivity" will change under socialism.