Canada’s abysmal productivity growth has been the subject of countless studies. From 1976 to 2000 the growth in our labour productivity — real output per worker hour — was not stellar but, at 1.69 per cent per year, was decent enough. At that rate of growth, it doubles every four decades. Because what people produce in large part determines their incomes, that means living standards can double every four decades, which means they quadruple over eight decades, which is roughly current life expectancy.