"G Farris" wrote in message
...
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.


Gee, what is that, a mantra?

Nevertheless, I think all will agree that there is a productivity problem
in
Europe.

Well, if the econmic studies are all bogus, how do you come to that
conclusion?

What the hell is it with all this post-modernist bull****?


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.

So how do you KNOW that? That's just your "opinion"!!

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.

Yes, governments of ALL stripes think that the economies they screwed up
should give them MORE moeny and power. That's the essence of Keynesianism.

"Nevertheless the theory of output as a whole, which is what the following
book purports to provide, is much more easily adapted to the conditions of a
totalitarian state, than is the theory of production and distribution of a
given output produced under conditions of free competition and a lance
measure of laissez-faire." (Keynes 1973 [1936]: xxvi: cf. Martin 1971:
200-5; Hazlitt [1959]1973: 277; Brunner 1987: 38ff.; Hayek 1967: 346)