This booklet, prepared by the United States Chamber of Commerce, is intended to help create a better public understanding of how productivity affects this country and to suggest how people can change public policy in favor of a revitalized America. The booklet is organized in five sections. The first section defines productivity and introduces the problem of the decline of productivity in the United States; these concepts are augmented in the second section by a discussion of measures of productivity and real earnings as related to productivity. In section 3, the economic history of the United States is explored as it relates to the slowdown of productivity in recent years. Section 4 further explores the productivity problem--what caused it, what has happened to investment incentives, and what the experts say; some solutions are proposed in the last section. An appendix to the publication contains tables showing real spendable average weekly earnings, 1947-1980; United States spending on research and development; growth rate of the real net capital stock; average age of United States equipment and structures, 1925-1980; and cash flow as a percent of Gross National Product. (KC)