In article , re says...


Of course, the results of such surveys depend on the political leanings
of the authors. Authors who favour a neoliberal policy will come to
results that portray the US as better, so to encourage Europeans to
mimick American policies.

Of course this is true.
Nevertheless, I think all will agree that there is a productivity problem in
Europe. French workers have the shortest working week of any country in the
world, and are on the higher end in pay scale (though lower than Germany,
Japan or the US). Their productivity in no way justifies such little work, and
when you add in the cost of all their social benefits, and their strikes to
ask for eben more social benefits and even less work it is not surprising that
they are not competitive on a global scale in most industries.

I think the big ideological difference is not in the assessment of the
situation, but in the proposed remedies, which will be diametrically opposed,
depending on which side of the political spectrum one favors.

G Faris