"Through this macroeconomic lens, productivity is essential to the common good."

An unstated cultural implicit here is that more productivity is always better. That's really what's killing us. At some point, more of anything becomes too much, becomes toxic.

There's an optimum range of 'productivity' where relevant factors are in balance. Below and above that range, we are struggling, unhealthy, distressed, unwell.

It is also crucial to ask what manner of productivity is happening. What is being produced, for whom, why? Who does that productivity serve? Who benefits, and who suffers?