A Lack of Productivity Could Point to a Lack of Meaning

“In the first quarter of 2022,”  The Wall Street Journal reported, “U.S. worker productivity fell in the steepest drop in 74 years.” 

That statistic speaks not just to how much work is getting done these days, but how much workers think their work matters.  

According to one expert, prosperity for the whole country depends on worker productivity.  And in a world where many struggle with the meaning of it all, many also struggle to find true meaning and significance in their work.   

There are two ways to miss the meaning of work: one way is to idolize a job, thinking it will fulfill us completely. The other is to reduce work to something we all must suffer through with minimal effort.  

Christians have the unique perspective that our work is a way of participating with God in His creation, working toward the flourishing of everything and everyone else. Articulating and living that truth can make a big difference.

Copyright 2022 by the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. Reprinted from BreakPoint.org with permission.

Groundbreaking Study on Social Mobility in America

Social mobility is a hot topic right now, with many claiming it is harder today for a person to rise from poverty than in years past. A study on upward mobility released earlier this year, however, challenges that claim.

Heritage Foundation writes,

“[A] groundbreaking new study of upward mobility by renowned Harvard economist Raj Chetty and his colleagues confirm that, ‘children entering the labor market today have the same chances of moving up in the income distribution relative to their parents as children born in the 1970s.'”

The implications of this study are that, contrary to the popular narrative pushed by some, upward mobility in America today is not all that different from upward mobility thirty or forty years ago. The rates have, largely, remained stable.

Heritage Foundation notes, however, that just because mobility rates have remained stable for the past few decades, that does not necessarily mean they are good. On improving upward mobility in America, Heritage writes:

“If there’s one clear trend that’s emerging from the study of mobility, we know that good schools, stable family environments, a culture of saving, and strong civic and social institutions are all strongly associated with better individual and community outcomes. Income inequality? Not so much.”