With all these new apps and gadgets, why is U.S. productivity so sluggish?

Leroy and Lauri Dixon used to plow $40,000 a year into promoting their party-supply business in a dozen telephone books. Today they spend $4,000 less and reach a lot more people by advertising on Google, Yahoo and Bing.

Also gone are the house calls to potential customers; the Dixons and their staff of 15 at Party Plus Tents and Events now get leads through Facebook, Instagram and other social media.

And yet, sales this year at Party Plus won't quite reach the $2 million hit in 2007.

--

Despite impressive innovations, new gadgets and applications that have transformed the way people do business and consume goods and services, the nation’s productivity gains have been disappointingly paltry over the last decade.

Economists call this the productivity puzzle.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-economy-low-productivity-20151002-story.html