Quote to Ponder: The High Road To Productivity

"It is clear that with the internationalization of markets, countries, companies, and people can thrive only if they yield to the imperatives of global competition. The most basic of these imperatives is that we can compete in only two ways: reduce wages and income or increase value added (or productivity and quality), sometimes referred to as the ‘high road….’ The high-value-added option, by contrast, could create very steep learning and earning curves and therefore holds great promise for personal, organizational, and national advancement. A production system based on ideas, skills, and knowledge clearly is less restrictive than one based on manual work and physical resources. However, since under present institutional arrangements in the United Sates market forces tent to lower wages for most workers, the high-road outcome will require positive interventions."

Ray Marshall,
Former U. S. Secretary of Labor