This episode is about a problem. It's a problem that has to do with how we build things in the U.S.

But it's not a new problem. The Department of Housing and Urban Development saw

it coming more than 50 years ago.

There's a report called A Decent Home from 1968, which was commissioned by the Johnson administration,

that basically said that construction productivity in the US had grown

about 2% per year in the 40s and 50s, and had in the 60s flatlined.

That is Ivan Rupnick. He is a professor. and had in the 60s flatlined?

That is Ivan Rupnick.

He is a professor of architecture at Northeastern University.

Productivity, as you probably know,

is how economists measure the relationship between the resources that go into a process, money, time, labor, things like that, and what comes out the other end.

Human kind has become much, much, much more productive over time, although not always and

not in every situation.

Let's say you get a new software program that helps you work faster, maybe even better.

That might lead to a gain in productivity. But if that same program is too complicated or glitchy, you might not get a gain in productivity.

Or maybe the new software is fantastic and fantastically fun and you spend hours doing something other than the work you're supposed to be

doing then your productivity might fall. So the productivity arrow doesn't always

travel in the direction you anticipate. And what happens if productivity declines in an

industry that is absolutely essential to our economy? Here is what that Johnson

Administration report said.

There was a potential for major societal impact,

not just for the construction industry, but for citizens

...