Synthesized answer
The conservation of national resources is presented as preliminary to the larger question of national efficiency [2]. While the country has recognized the importance of conserving material resources, the significance of increasing national efficiency has been more vaguely appreciated [2]. Wastes of human effort, described as blundering, ill-directed, or inefficient acts, are less visible and tangible than the waste of material things [2, 3].
National efficiency is directly linked to national prosperity. The passages state that maximum prosperity can exist only as the result of maximum productivity [1]. When each man and machine are turning out the largest possible output, it leads to the greatest prosperity [1]. This increased productivity of each individual is what the whole country owes its greater prosperity to [4]. A higher average productivity differentiates civilized from uncivilized countries and prosperous from poverty-stricken peoples [4]. Increased national efficiency would enlarge markets, improve competitiveness, remove causes for dull times and poverty, and lead to higher wages and better working conditions [5].
Synthesized from the book passages below. Chat with the book on Feynman for follow-up.
From the book
human effort, plus nature's resources, plus the cost for the use of capital in the shape of machines, buildings, etc. Or, to state the same thing in a different way: that the greatest prosperity can exist only as the result of the greatest possible productivity of the men and machines of the establishment--that is, when each man and each machine are turning out the largest possible output; because unless your men and your machines are daily turning out more work than others around you, it is clear that competition will prevent your paying higher wages to your workmen than are paid to…
Produced by Charles E. Nichols The Principles of Scientific Management by FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR, M.E., Sc.D. 1911 INTRODUCTION President Roosevelt in his address to the Governors at the White House, prophetically remarked that "The conservation of our national resources is only preliminary to the larger question of national efficiency." The whole country at once recognized the importance of conserving our material resources and a large movement has been started which will be effective in accomplishing this object. As yet, however, we have…
y," are less visible, less tangible, and are but vaguely appreciated. We can see and feel the waste of material things. Awkward, inefficient, or ill-directed movements of men, however, leave nothing visible or tangible behind them. Their appreciation calls for an act of memory, an effort of the imagination. And for this reason, even though our daily loss from this source is greater than from our waste of material things, the one has stirred us deeply, while the other has moved us but little. As yet there has been no public agitation for "greater national efficiency," no meetings have…
ity has come, it is to the greater productivity of each individual that the whole country owes its greater prosperity. Those who are afraid that a large increase in the productivity of each workman will throw other men out of work, should realize that the one element more than any other which differentiates civilized from uncivilized countries--prosperous from poverty--stricken peoples--is that the average man in the one is five or six times as productive as the other. It is also a fact that the chief cause for the large percentage of the unemployed in England (perhaps the most virile…
our home and foreign markets would be greatly enlarged, and we could compete on more than even terms with our rivals. It would remove one of the fundamental causes for dull times, for lack of employment, and for poverty, and therefore would have a more permanent and far-reaching effect upon these misfortunes than any of the curative remedies that are now being used to soften their consequences. It would insure higher wages and make shorter working hours and better working and home conditions possible. Why is it, then, in the face of the self-evident fact that maximum prosperity can…