4 ms·

Between a spat of terror attacks and a generally weak economy, I'm surprised France is so low.

• toomuchtodo 10y ago
  France has a shorter work week, greater labor protections, _and_ their workers are more productive than both US and Germany citizens. When you don't allow the top income classes to continue to siphon value out of the economy, your general populace does better overall.
  • ringwalt 10y ago
    Source on productivity? And whether or not individual workers are more productive, French mega-corporations seem to have much less of a global reach than American or German ones. I can't think of many French products that are common in the US other than cosmetics (that's an anecdotal argument though).
    • toomuchtodo 10y ago
      > Source on productivity? https://www.google.com/search?q=france+productivity https://www.google.com/search?q=france+productivity Global reach is only enriching shareholders, not the middle class.
      • buckbova 10y ago
        French are not more productive per capita, but more productive per capita/hour. There's a big difference here. Obviously there's diminishing returns after X hours of work in a day or week, but there are still returns.
        • toomuchtodo 10y ago
          > French are not more productive per capita, but more productive per capita/hour. So they're more efficient, while Americans are more productive because they work longer hours with less holiday. > There's a big difference here. Obviously there's diminishing returns after X hours of work in a day or week, but there are still returns. But where those returns are going are most important for this discussion. And they are not going to workers.
          • user5994461 10y ago
            There is a very simple way to have French be more productive per hours. Let's compare a French and an American... - The French guy works 9 to 6. It's accounted as 35 hours and he gets paid for 35 hours. - The American guy works 9 to 6. It's accounted as 40 hours and he gets paid for 40 hours. They both do and produce the same thing. The statistics say that the French is more productive per hour ;)
            • toomuchtodo 10y ago
              You forget that the American is working 50-60 hours, and only being paid for 40. "Adults employed full time in the U.S. report working an average of 47 hours per week, almost a full workday longer than what a standard five-day, 9-to-5 schedule entails. In fact, half of all full-time workers indicate they typically work more than 40 hours, and nearly four in 10 say they work at least 50 hours." https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/on-leadership/wp/2014/09/02/the-average-work-week-is-now-47-hours/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/on-leadership/wp/2014/09... http://money.cnn.com/2015/07/09/news/economy/americans-work-bush/ http://money.cnn.com/2015/07/09/news/economy/americans-work-... http://www.gallup.com/poll/175286/hour-workweek-actually-longer-seven-hours.aspx http://www.gallup.com/poll/175286/hour-workweek-actually-lon...
              • user5994461 10y ago
                Does the American works 9 to 9? Anyway, I'd love to see a study that compare countries: - What time people say they do? - What time people actually do? - What time get accounted and paid for? That would be very interesting.
                • deleted 10y ago
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            • malloryerik 10y ago
              Another possible angle (to be mixed and matched with the original): French guy works 35 hours (ok really 38) and is busy all the time at work. Korean guy works 60 hours (ok really 55) and spends much of it 1) recovering from semi-mandatory drinking with the boss and colleagues, 2) browsing / shopping online, 3) chatting on KakaoTalk, often while 4) waiting for his boss to leave so that he can also, or 5) if working diligently, often on polishing pointless powerpoint presentations.
  • todd8 10y ago
    Here are some actual numbers: The Conference Board Total Economic Database May 2016 release, table "Labor productivity per hour worked in 1990 US$ (converted at Geary Khamis PPPs)" For 2015, France 37, USA 40. [1] Wikipedia, List of countries by GDP (PPP) per hour worked, methodology appears different than previous citation. France 59.24, USA 67.32. [2] OECD, GDP per hour worked, 2014. France 60.3, USA 62.4. [3] In each case the data seems to show that workers in the US are more productive per hour worked than those in France. [1] https://www.conference-board.org/data/economydatabase/index.cfm?id=27762 https://www.conference-board.org/data/economydatabase/index.... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)_per_hour_worked https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)... [3] https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=PDB_LV https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=PDB_LV