You're right that what matters is the cost of the employee to the employer, which wages form only a part. But if the employee productivity far outpaces that, then they'll be hiring, which will bid up those wages.
> You wouldn't buy as many as possible at all, because the rest will just be dead weight.
As I said, "if you could sell them for $1.00", which is not dead weight. Any merchant badly wants widgets that can be sold for 10x cost. Heck, I'd even start a reselling business if I could find such a product!
well, sketchiness of the metrics aside, the 75% more productive is an average value, not a median value (or a mode), so not all labor will yield "1.75x cost"...
> You wouldn't buy as many as possible at all, because the rest will just be dead weight.
As I said, "if you could sell them for $1.00", which is not dead weight. Any merchant badly wants widgets that can be sold for 10x cost. Heck, I'd even start a reselling business if I could find such a product!