You Gov Daily Sept 20

You Gov today did a You Pop Culture set, all three questions focused on the divorce of a Hollywood couple - who really cares?

The final question being "which of the two actors do you prefer as an actor?" But no "both" or "neither" option.

Not that this engenders an interesting discussion of nuance or detail the way this serries is intended, but let's call this "poor use of poling". It's so trivial and unsubstantiated that I am completely ambivalent to both options, I really can't pick. If this were a vote for President, I just wouldn't.

YouGov Daily Sept 8

"Last night at the NBC TV forum on defense and military Donald Trump suggested Vladimir Putin is a better leader than Barack Obama.  Who do you think is doing a better job in protecting their country's national interest."

Here's one where the question might not appear, to my pedantic mind, to mean what they intended it to mean, and more importantly what the respondents read and actually replied to.

Putin could be said to be doing a bang up job of protecting Russia's interests.  Considering the economy is failing, and they are ostracizing themselves from the cooperative international diplomatic scene, he is somehow leading them into a position of power, national fervor, and military expansion. So in the specifics of "protecting national interest" he's doing pretty well, at least in the near term.  But on the question of being a good global leader, not so much.  And very likely not good for Russia in the long term as European, American, and other "western" countries see them as an active threat.

You Gov Daily

I use the YouGov Daily app to share my many opinions with teh world.  But I've found that of the three questions it asks me every day, I get at least one that I want to take issue with.  So I'm going to use that as a seed of a mini blog series..

In the mean time, despite the ambiguities I will be posting, I suggest you join the conversation.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fatfinger.yougov&hl=en

and for iCrap:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/yougov-daily/id798508106?mt=8

Productivity

http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/09/05/488686198/why-your-facebook-habit-at-work-makes-economists-worry


Listening to the podcast version of this story today made me wonder. 
It seems to me quite plausible that the factors behind the stagnation could include a disinclination of workers to do more when they no longer share in the rewards.

Productivity v Real Wages

Productivity growth in the last hundred years progressed at about 2.3% per year. This might not seem like a lot, but it means a doubling of production, which was matched by a doubling of standard of living, every generation. In the last 40 years we've seen a total break between productivity increases and real wage increases. In the last 10 years we've seen a stagnation of productivity.