But almost invisible element in our economic wellbeing, something we take for granted until it slows down. That happened in the 1970s. We had a blizzard of suggestions for dealing with productivity. How do we get more for less . With the help of analyst richard gill, well examine that question on economics usa. Im david schoumacher. Captioning made possible by the Annenberg Cpb project economists see the world in terms of supply and demand. Put simply, demand is the appetite to consume. Supply is the ability to produce. Productivity holds the supply side together. As long as productivity continues to improve, our standard of living continues to improve. This is the classic widget factory. This machine will put the stick in a deodorant tube. It if works, well have more deodorant and fewer hours of work putting tubes together. Thats productivity. American productivity has been an economic marvel of the industrial age. But by the late 1970s, our rate of productivity growth had slumped ala