In discussions about sackings, entitlements and unions, productivity is touted as the highest of all economic goals. The government, the Business Council, the Australian Industry Group, the ALP, the Greens and even trade union leaders emphasise their faithful service to the cause.

On the surface, increased productivity – creating more goods and services from the same quantity of labour and resources – appears to be good for everyone.

According to Treasury analysis, productivity growth has historically been the main factor underlying real income growth in Australia. It also boosts government revenue from income and corporate taxes, enabling (theoretically) a higher level of investment in social services and infrastructure.

The story the bosses want us to believe is that productivity is the key to future prosperity for all. But the reality is quite different.

More often than not, productivity gains result in more profits for the bosses without any real improvement in pay and conditions for workers. The chart shows how this has played out in the United States: most of the gains from increased productivity have not gone to workers.

Australian workers have fared better, not because of the generosity of our bosses, but rather because of the greater strength of the union movement.

The more productivity is allowed to occupy centre stage in industrial relations debates, the more legitimacy is lent to the bosses’ talk of streamlining, efficiency and so on in the name of profitability.

According to this line of thinking, it is justifiable for workers whose roles are made redundant by advances in technology to be thrown on the scrap heap for the “greater good”.

When union leaders buy into the productivity agenda, they prepare the ground for big business to boost profits at our expense.

The other thing that all the talk of productivity ignores is the what, where, when and how of production. When you think about all the outright harmful or completely useless things that are produced under capitalism, it’s enough to make the mind boggle.

The global arms industry is worth an estimated $1.5 trillion annually and is devoted to the production of goods and services whose primary purpose is destruction.

There is continued massive investment in fossil fuel industries that are driving society towards environmental catastrophe. Hundreds of billions are spent globally on advertising and the media empires churning out what have aptly been described as “weapons of mass distraction”.

Vast amounts of labour and resources are spent on constructing luxury playthings for the rich – the super-yachts, mansions, sports cars and so on whose core purpose is the ostentatious display of wealth.

Even when products are useful, they are made to be obsolete in a relatively short time. Cars, computers, home appliances, shoes and clothing could easily be produced to last. But, for the sake of constantly selling them, they are likely to require replacement in a few short years.

Productivity is about producing more things in a given amount of time. But what’s the point of producing more and more things that are designed to fall apart more and more quickly? Despite all this, there are numerous professions within capitalism engaged in work that benefits the majority of people.

Doctors, nurses, teachers, childcare workers, researchers, construction, transport, communications, and manufacturing workers – the list could go on.

In these cases, rejecting the productivity mantra is about enhancing the contribution to society by fighting for pay and conditions that allow the job to be done properly. New work practices or technologies introduced in the name of productivity may well result in a boost in the output squeezed from workers, but this is often at the cost of the quality of the goods or services being produced.

Think, for example, of continuing attempts to water down skill levels in trades, increase nurse-to-patient ratios in hospitals or push through bigger class sizes in schools.

Despite all the talk to the contrary, productivity is not “win-win”. It is just an attempt to get us to work harder, to increase the profits of the bosses and butter us up for lay-offs.