Abstract
Even before the wheel the human factor was an essential element in the work process. As early as the 1830's the productivity of the American worker was noticeably higher than their foreign counterparts." For some observers this was the result of the industrial revolution. The cause and effect relationship on this point is, however, beyond the scope of this paper. The principle which should be noted is that without the' human factor, no production is possible. A logical question which follows, from these statements is what proportion of production can be attributed to the skills and expertise of a human being. No production can be achieved without a man intervening in some way in some part of the system. But as a man becomes more knowledgeable about his job or as his working conditions improve he will be capable of producing more output of higher quality per unit of time, cet. par., than was the case when he first-undertook the job. This increase in capacity can be due to several factors: training, better education (formal), better health and working conditions and many other types of investments in human beings. Since the output due to technology is relatively fixed, the investment in the human factor becomes more important. That is, a given machine can produce a specified amount of output per unit of time under normal conditions. If we accept this as true, the investment in human beings becomes a primary source of increased productivity which up to now has remained relatively untapped.