Stupid paper...

[ZTC]

In my MacroEcon class, there's a group paper to do(which is due next month). It's supposed to be an 8-page diseration on "Is productivity good for the US economy?" There were 5 people in the group to start, but when there was a check on the status of the group, it turns out that 3 of them dropped the class. :mad: So now it's just me and one other person to work on this. I'm not to happy about it...
(but, my partner is a cute girl, so it's not a total loss :kawaii: )
*EDIT* correction, it's due the 15th of April :(

[Rainman]

Umm, I'd be interested in hearing what's potentially bad about productivity. I suppose over emphasis on productivity can lead to bad things for workers rights.

I have to do a big paper for my main engineering class. I suppose it's about 12 pages in standard format, but we have a special format (two columns, small text and margins) that fits a lot of text per page. I've got a partner though so it hasn't been too bad. Speaking of which I should be working on revising that paper now...

[Dr. Weird]

that reminds me when I had a group paper to do, and everybody dropped, so I had to do everything...

I know what you're feeling :(

[Coder GT]

In my MacroEcon class, there's a group paper to do(which is due next month). It's supposed to be an 8-page diseration on "Is productivity good for the US economy?" There were 5 people in the group to start, but when there was a check on the status of the group, it turns out that 3 of them dropped the class. :mad: So now it's just me and one other person to work on this. I'm not to happy about it...
(but, my partner is a cute girl, so it's not a total loss :kawaii: )
*EDIT* correction, it's due the 15th of April :(
What is the topic on? Well you can do 4 pages and she can do 4 pages.

[Lutraphobiac]

Well, you DO have a month to do it. My suggestions that I never follow

*Start early with research. It is most of the work and can make or break your paper.
*Organize your research and notes(good to take) into sections as they will go in the paper. Makes it easier to see where your research is lacking.
*Make a rough draft early and walk away from it for awhile. When you come back, you will be fresh and maybe have better ideas so you can improve your paper.
*Let other people proof read your paper.


That is good advice that I have been given over many years. Now if you will excuse me, I have to do a huge engineering paper that is due on friday.

[DsS Game]

Well, you DO have a month to do it. My suggestions that I never follow



Read it again, its due on the 15 of april.

And what can you do? If they dropped out, you could talk to them to ge tthem back that be great. Otherwise I suggest you guys do half and half. Gather info, compare the notes, agree what to use and what not to use, and starting preparing it.

[AtmaWeapon]

You have two weeks to do it, it can't be that big of a paper. I have done all of my research papers alone in less than a week and a half. To me collaboration between four people on a paper would increase the difficulty of the project rather than decrease it.

The first secret is teachers don't grade as hard as you think, especially in a MacroEcon class. If you put forth 75% effort, you will have put forth 25% more effort than the rest of your class and your grade will reflect that.

The second secret is get started. It is hard to take the first steps, but once you have started working on it you'll be motivated to finish.

I can think of many ways of how attempting to increase productivity is bad for the economy, but I doubt this is what an economist would mention. I probably waste at least two hours out of the day browsing MSDN for non-work-related projects (though it is still programming ;)) One could argue that by removing my ability to browse the web my productivity would increase. Unfortunately, this is wrong. Those two hours are the cumulative effect of 15-minute breaks every few hours. Occasionally, I'm in the zone and I don't take those breaks. On days where I take the breaks, I am constantly working while not on break, so my output is 6 hours of work for 8 hours of labor. On the days where I work constantly with no breaks, I tend to burn out after about 4 hours, and for the rest of the day work becomes exponentially more difficult. For the last 4 hours of the day, I am operating at about 25% of my normal capacity, and taking a break doesn't help once I get burned out. So removing my ability to take those breaks yields 5 hours of work out of 8 hours of labor. What's worse, if I have to work overtime my performance decreases further if I am burned out to the point that I am producing nothing, so giving me the breaks begins to provide an even larger advantage.

On a grander scale (this is more Macroeconomic than my Microeconomic explanation), too much productivity has grave consequences. Increasing productivity by 10% means you have 10% more product per unit cost. This cheapens labor and makes it more difficult to find a job, since new employees are expected to perform 10% better than average for the same wage. Since workers are producing more but getting paid the same, you have lowered wages. The factory has two choices of what to do with this 10% increase: produce more product or reduce employed workers by 10%.

Cutting the workers has an obvious effect, so we'l discuss increasing production. There is now more product to buy, but there is no more disposable income available than there was before (why raise wages if it's the machinery doing all the work?). Supply has outpaced demand. Warehouses fill up with unsold merchandise, factories decrease production to account for this. Now, if productivity increased by 10% and production decreases by 10%, all of a sudden the factories realize they can save lots of their money if they cut some of the workers (since only 90% of the workforce is needed to maintain 100% output, and only 90% output is desired, why employ all that extra dead weight?). Eventually, jobs are lost and the economy suffers.

Fun fact, though. As the unemployed increase, production drops in response to decreased demand. Supply dwindles as production decreases (since 90% of the workforce is still employed, eventually they will start to buy up the goods at overstock prices). When demand for goods outpaces supply, suddenly the factories need to increase production. They are at 90% of employee strength and producing at 100%, but now 115% is desired and they need more workers! To encourage better workers and increase productivity, higher wages are offered. With more money in their pockets, workers buy more product, increasing demand and causing the factories to produce more until the cycle begins anew.

I love economics because many tributaries form the river. This explanation is a birds-eye view, there are an infinite number of variables influencing these systems.

[Ich]

I wrote ten pages on the Baader-Meinhof Gang (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Army_Faction) in one weekend. I worked 17 hours that weekend at my job, and worked about as long on the paper. This meant producing three rough drafts which were evaluated by peers, notecards which I made the paper and outline from (I made them from the paper), as well as photocopies of five of the sources I derived direct quotes from. I had roughly two and a half months to do it, and did it all in one weekend, and got an 86 point something. The ink was wet on the final draft when I handed it in.

[mikeron]

The ink was wet on the final draft when I handed it in.Change "final" to "first" and you have my methodology for all 4 years of college.

[ZTC]

Thanks for the support guys, especially your input, Atma,;

but, could somebody direct me to a few links on this subject?

[Riku]

I had to write a 7 page paper for my English class...i had like 2 months to do it but i chose to do it last night...it only took me 2 hours because i got on a roll...i have a knack for writing papers very quickly.

[Lilith]

Cute Girls Are Kawaaaiiii ^_______^

[AtmaWeapon]

Thanks for the support guys, especially your input, Atma,;

but, could somebody do my research for me?

Fixed :)...

...and the answer is no. :mad:

There are numerous search engines available, but I suggest you go to a library and start hitting Economics texts hard because I doubt you'll find much about this on the internet. It's more of an opinionated thing because no one fully understands how the economy works, so you are going to perhaps have to ask your professor if there are any particular economists who are outspoken on the subject.

[ZTC]

lol, thanks anyways ;)

===
I've found a few decent resources already, now I have to start writing it....

[Coder GT]

Use for research (if you need more sources):
www.google.com (http://www.google.com)
www.metacrawler.com (http://www.metacrawler.com)
www.yahoo.com (http://www.yahoo.com)