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I do think it's worth pointing out that the cheap labour reduces incentives for companies to invest in increasing productivity. I think the high real estate costs might be a problem too - too much of Canada's available capital is going towards expanding housing supply and not enough on better technology - software, equipment, etc. I think part of the stagnant productivity has been due to lack of investment in technology, rather than laziness of workers. It's also worth pointing out that a lot of the workforce has been in government, which has been spending more and more money while not having much to show for it, so productivity in the government is another issue too. Bureaucracy and red tape can also be detrimental to productivity in both governments and the private sector. Maybe Canada needs more competitiveness (ex with telecommunications). Lack of training could be an other obstacle to productivity, or for example... not speaking English properly. Sometimes when I get customer service with an Indian, I have to make him repeat 5 times because of his extremely thick accent. He might not be lazy and trying his best, but still not very productive. \n\nWith slavery in the US, the South has been rather inefficient with their labour because slaves were relatively cheap (still had to feed and house them). With the end of slavery, came a big increase in worker productivity.\nhttps://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w31758/w31758.pdf