Most nations gain their advantage by making things more efficiently, and at lower cost, than their competitors.To the extent that the French enjoy a natural advantage, it is in their inefficiency: They are the world's most efficient producers of structured indolence. They are the kept women of the global economy; their status depends, in part, on their practical uselessness.
Reinvent the British and you get a global finance center, edible food and better service. Reinvent the French and you may just get more Germans.
It is only somewhat marred by the fact that I have heard its opening anecdote from, to a first approximation, every single American I have ever met who has spent any time at all in Britain. I find it hard to believe that every one of my compatriots, even those who spent a month on a course at Oxford, have been so unlucky as to encounter hapless shopkeepers who stop stocking things because "we kept running out". I find it especially hard to believe that they stopped stocking Chocolate-dipped McVities Digestive Biscuits (which are indeed one of the world's most delicious convenience foods), which are to British grocers as 97 versions of diet coke are to the modern American convenience store.
Besides, the story about ordering 20 channels of cable, and finding out that this consists of 10 channels during the day, and 10 other channels at night, is much funnier. It is also, as far as I know, true--a business school acquaintance responded to this by cutting a 50 pound note in half and mailing it in, which did not amuse the cable company but gave the rest of us a little flutter of patriotic pride.
I find it hard to believe that every one of my compatriots, even those who spent a month on a course at Oxford, have been so unlucky as to encounter hapless shopkeepers who stop stocking things because "we kept running out".
Sounds plausible enough to me. I've encountered that phenomenon myself twice in the past five years in the supposedly consumer-sensitive United States -- a Giant in Maryland that stopped carrying the Sunday New York Times, and a Safeway in DC that stopped carrying pita bread. (The Safeway has since returned to stocking pita bread, but only cheap and inferior brands. No idea about the Giant.)
"a business school acquaintance responded to this by cutting a 50 pound note in half and mailing it in, which did not amuse the cable company "
Ahhh....perhaps THAT's why they now demand direct-debits to pay for monthly service......
....and don't forget that half of those channels are the same programming as another channel, just delayed by an hour....
I really don't get the mockery of the French in that column. They place a higher value on leisure than we do. So what? Complain about Parisian dog-owners, complain about French racism, complain about the spelling conventions of their language.
But stop pretending that it is somehow more civilized to force people to work 40 hours a week.
Lampwick, you are exactly right. It is that attitude that cost Soc Gen $7 billion earlier this year.
I see: so if every French worker - every dessert chef, every trucker, every mime, every street sweeper, every veterinarian, every plumber, every mailman, every podiatrist, and every x-ray technician - if every French worker had put in an additional 5 hours per week at the office, it would have prevented a single rogue trader at Soc Gen from getting away with mischief.
Well, I'll tell you what: the average American works 46 hours a week. And for our troubles, we've had Enron, we've had real-estate and tech bubbles, we lost most of a major city to a hurricane, we had a Space Shuttle blow up, we have a worthless dollar, we invaded a country on false pretenses, and we let a jackass loose inside the White House for over eight years.
But, at least we have the right 'attitude'. GO USA!
lampwick, first of all, you are absolutely right, there is nothing funny about the column. It's just dumb small-minded provincialism, which some Americans apparently wear as a badge of honor. OTOH, I think the root causes of Americans' bizarre love/hate attitude towards the French are interesting to consider. I wonder if they parallel the complex political and cultural historical relationship between US and France? Or is it just simple resentment of people who know how to live a good life? I don't know...
AT proves my point exactly.
Look, AT, and people like him: not everyone values the accumulation of capital above all other things. If you start from the assumption that only economic productivity matters, you're begging the question, you've rigged the game.
If money is the only thing that you care about,cool. Don't force that perspective on the French.
Even in the 50's, the 'tough guys' in American culture could be unembarrassed Francophiles. Most contemporary Francophobia can be traced back to the 60's, I assume, when France's loyalty to the West became suspect due to its quasi-independence from NATO, its conspicuous socialism, and all the scary artistic and intellectual movements originating in Paris. Conservatives decided that France was the source of all evil, and that view then filtered down into the culture at large, gaining strength at appropriate moments. When I was in high school in the 80's I remember kids making tough-guy remarks about France being a wimpy country that the US constantly had to save from Germany.
Is there any romance to visiting England anymore? It seems to me that aside from the accents and some historical sites, it's basically indistinguishable from New Jersey.
I agreee wholeheartily with the positive statements regarded choclate digestives. There's even a "diet" version of them called Hobnobs.
Oh and Lampwick, have you been to Wales or Cornwall? Don't tell me my home country lacks any romance... You know as someone has experienced travelling in pretty every one of the relavant countries mentioned here. I will say there some digs I could at the US....
Though I must say its not completely accurate to compare modern France to eighties/seventies UK. The latter was a lot worse to be in.
"Most contemporary Francophobia can be traced back to the 60's, I assume, when France's loyalty to the West became suspect due to its quasi-independence from NATO, its conspicuous socialism, and all the scary artistic and intellectual movements originating in Paris."
Not to mention the fact that De Gaulle cashed in the dollars of France's trade surplus for gold.
Lampwick: I don't impute civilizational value to a nation based on their default workweek. I will, however, mock a nation's politicians for being blithering idiots when they ban people from working more than 35 hours per week in an attempt to create jobs.
While I don't appreciate the political naivete' and required anti-americanism of the French, they are in fact extremely productive people. Their indutry (autos, etc.) and agriculture are very, very good and people pay a large premium for the quality of French goods
There is really too much french-bashing based on mutual contempt. Economically, they are doing pretty well. They don't create a lot of jobs on a relative basis, but they live well, have a well-educated, well-cared for population and those in the labor force are certainly as productive as brits and americans
The 40hr work week is completely arbitrary and is no more manly than the 35hr or 45hr week. I don't see why the French laws regarding the 35hr week are any more laughable than US laws regarding the 40hr week. If some country institutes a 45hr week, will they be entitled to call ridicule Americans as girly weaklings?
There should be no laws regarding the work week at all. People and companies should be free to set their own working terms.
"There should be no laws regarding the work week at all. People and companies should be free to set their own working terms."
That's all well and good in theory, but what's it to you if the French decide they want them? Let the French decide what sort of France they want.
When it comes to inefficiency, indolence, massive government bureaucracy, and the good life, the French are nothing compared to Brazilians.
The problem with that is that you end up with Brazil.
France and America are between the manana attitude of South America and the three hour subway commutes of the Japanese.
I work like a Frenchman. I love that lifestyle. Most importantly, I love doing it in America, where I can take advantage of the efficiencies created by those who enjoy working significantly harder.
I just visited London and Paris. And a quick glance at the skyline certainly shows that the city of London is more prosperous.
Yet, I think the difference is often overstated. Has per capita GDP really grown that drastically for England over France?
It seems like London's financial prowess has allowed a small group of people to prosper beyond imagination (which is great).
But on the whole, the difference isn't too dramatic.
"When it comes to inefficiency, indolence, massive government bureaucracy, and the good life, the French are nothing compared to Brazilians."
Despite all that, there are enough smart hard-chargers in France and Brazil to create globally competitive companies, e.g., Schlumberger, Carrefour, CVRD, Embraer, etc.
Since Paris has a law that forbids building heights greater than 37 meters, I wouldn't draw any conclusions about the relative prosperity of London and Paris from a 'quick glance at the skyline'.
Yet, I think the difference is often overstated. Has per capita GDP really grown that drastically for England over France?
In PPP terms, Britain's advantage over France is apporximately 6% according to the CIA: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html
those in the labor force are certainly as productive as brits and americans
The obvious problem being the difficulty to get into the labor force.
lampwick- I just love your subjective selective lists of the failures of the American free market, which - rather than force everyone to work 40 hours per week - merely happens to encourage it because Americans discover they are happier when more prosperous than not. Say what you like; I'm European living in America and wouldn't go back unless you paid me what I'm NOT PERMITTED to make in my own country because they "value leisure" so highly. :-)
John Wright
jacobus- The only way you can justify your argument is by appealing to the idea that the "French" are a single collective entity which makes decisions about "what sort of France they want" together. But that isn't the case. The French, as Americans and any other nation, are a nation of individuals, who disagree on how long they should be 'allowed' to work (as if they should need permission): as such, French individuals have the right to work as long as they damned well like, and their companies have the right to employ them accordingly.
John Wright
Do people not get the difference between "Ideally, I enjoy working no more than 35 hours a week" and "If you work more than 35 hours a week you will be punished by the government" ?
The libertarian side of me is quite keen on the idea that there should be no regulation of how long people should work.
But practical experience suggests that preferences for a shorter than average work week have trouble being heard. I suspect the issue is that you need quite a courageous manager to approve shorter than average work weeks which I suspect is why pretty well everyone defaults towards whatever the average is unless there is something that trumps this such as women with childcare responsibilites.
What the solution is to this conundrum I have no idea but it puzzles me that the near doubling of output since the 1980s has been taken entirely in increased wages. This is not even a particularly rational outcome, given that much of the increase in wages has gone on bidding up the prices of positional and fixed goods such as housing so it's questionable how much better off we all actually are.
Perhaps our hostess has some thoughts on this?
For thinking in the box, an old worn shoe-box that is, this thread is hard to beat.
Rational people hate boring wastes of time at work. That is what improving labour productivity is all about: identifying these wastes of time and eliminating them. The French are very good at high productivity per working hour.
Nevertheless, I prefer the Irish approach. In Ireland you do in four and a half hours the business that you do elsewhere in five hours; provided you spend the the first four hours talking about more interesting things.
"Rational people hate boring wastes of time at work. That is what improving labour productivity is all about: identifying these wastes of time and eliminating them. The French are very good at high productivity per working hour."
Of course, as someone else noted above, it's really hard to get into the labor force (especially the country's relatively young and therefore unproductive groups). That increases productivity per hour worked.
Also, the wealthiest people in the US (the doctors, lawyers, accountants, business managers) typically work in the 50 to 60 hour range. So of course you can drastically increase our productivity per hour by forcing such people to cut their work in half.
The work that didn't get done by cutting their hours would either never get done (not good...the French solution). Or there would have to be an increase in the supply of Doctors, accountants, lawyers, business managers. And that's not good either. Studies clearly show that 2 people who work 30 hour work weeks does not equal 1 person who works a 60 hour work week.
So don't be too impressed with the productivity per hour claims by the French.
"Besides, the story about ordering 20 channels of cable, and finding out that this consists of 10 channels during the day, and 10 other channels at night, is much funnier. It is also, as far as I know, true"
your friend must have dug out and used the crappiest cable provider in the UK......
20 channels ? that sounds like freeview not cable.
Anyone who was paying 50 quid a month for 20 channels was being taken for a ride.
I pay less than that for hundreds of channels and have done for years.
"The 40hr work week is completely arbitrary and is no more manly than the 35hr or 45hr week. I don't see why the French laws regarding the 35hr week are any more laughable than US laws regarding the 40hr week. If some country institutes a 45hr week, will they be entitled to call ridicule Americans as girly weaklings?"
I never called the French girly for their work schedules. I called them fools for putting a (very low) legal cap on work hours. If the Americans were to start charging you for staying late at the office, I'd call them fools just as much as I do the French(well, on this topic, at least). And I don't care whether that cap is 8 hours a week or 80.
So 2 people working 30 hours per week don't equal 1 person working 60?
what do these "studies" say, thehova?
I work around/with many professionals who claim and on paper at least work 50-60 hours a week and I daresay that many of those hours are pretty lame. Of course someone working 30 hours a week wastes time as well, but in my own world of observation, those cranking out long hours are not very efficient.
Modern society (email, etc.) has created a drain on hours - people have tools to be more "productive" but also spend more time on nonsense - so one wonders has the efficiency gain of email compensated for the amount of time workers waste surfing the net? These are questions that IMO are not addressed very well and IMHO I view productivity measurements and especially the 1990's "productivity miracle" in the US as dubious achievements.
Jozef, on the one hand businesses like to employ part timers to reduce their benefit costs.
But make no mistake about it. There's a reason why businesses have in the past 20 years reduced staff and asked employees to work longer hours. It's simply much, much more productive.
Jozef, think about this puzzle: California has roughly half the population of France. Yet their GDP's are roughly equal.
So has France really rode a wave of productivity over the US?
the lewis column is (a) not funny (b) provincial, and (c) grossly misinformed.
plainly, there are lots of people in france who work more than 35h/week. of course, CEOs, doctors, lawyiers do work much more than that.
this is not to say it's a good law, but the view that french people just love leisure is crap. btw, they elected sarkozy on the premise of 'work harder to earn more'. so the column doesn't make sense... (that's not to say that the 35h workweek makes any sense either)
anti-french bashing is sometimes ridiculous. Megan wrote a few weeks ago that only 'UK, australia, and israel' are able to send armed forces abroad to solve a conflict. When was the last time Israel did this? And Australia is ok, but forgetting France from this list showed such poor information it was laughable.
"Megan wrote a few weeks ago that only 'UK, australia, and israel' are able to send armed forces abroad to solve a conflict. When was the last time Israel did this? And Australia is ok, but forgetting France from this list showed such poor information it was laughable."
The French armed forces have been active in France's former colonies in Africa for years, although these interventions often don't get much attention in the U.S. media. As for Israel, due to its diplomatic isolation, I don't think it has been invited to join in U.S.- or UN-led interventions, but it has projected power beyond its borders on occasion, e.g., the raid in Entebbe, Uganda; the bombing of Iraq's nuclear plant; the air strike against the PLO HQ in Tunisia, etc.
I'm an American and I've visited both Britain and France. Paris is way cooler than London from a tourist perspective. As far as the people I met, I liked both countries. I didn't get the whole "Parisians are rude" vibe at all. They were quite friendly to me actually.
Hobnobs are by far superior to McVities.
I guess the Germans are doomed to be the punchline of obnoxious columns such as Lewis'.
Reinvent the Germans and you get Bavaria: tasty fattening food, decent service and an export powerhouse.
Lampwick:
Conservatives decided that France was the source of all evil, and that view then filtered down into the culture at large, gaining strength at appropriate moments.
I developed a dislike of the French long before I ever voted for a Republican candidate. My dislike of the French is based on experience I have had with French in Latin America and the US: as fellow tourists, as a contract employee for a French company, and as roommates. Based on my experience, my take on the French is that they are aloof and arrogant. I am not the only one to come to that conclusion: others have related to me similar conclusions about working with or for the French, including a Guatemalan government employee who dealt with French companies in his job.
In his book While Europe Slept, Bruce Bawer related how he and his friend had made reservations at a French hotel. When they arrived at the hotel and his friend went inside to the desk to register,speaking in English, the clerk denied that there was any such reservation. The friend went back outside. Bruce went into the hotel, spoke in French, and shortly got the room keys and very friendly treatment.
Even when one can get past the aloof and arrogant part of many French, there is still a definite gap between French and American perceptions. I traveled for a while with French tourists in South America, with whom I got along fairly well. A French woman in the group, who was definitely neither aloof nor arrogant to me, informed me that French friends who had hitchhiked around the US had been invited to the homes of some of the drivers who had picked them up hitching. This was also my experience from hitchhiking around the US during that epoch. The French woman informed me that there was something sick about Americans, that they would be so friendly to a stranger to invite them to their homes. So much for the frontier spirit.
The French and Americans: we don’t see things the same way.
thehova
California also has a disproportionate share of US GDP
are Californians truly more productive or is there a concentration of high value industry there?
I would much rather live anywhere in 90% of France than in 90% of California
Ah, McVitie's Plain Chocolate Digestives! What Pepperidge Farm cookies want to be when they grow up!
And finally, after >30 years of waiting, available on my local yuppie supermarket shelf. So much for my weight loss program.
French productivity per worker is higher than American.
The problem is they work 1/3rd fewer hours pa. Ad
So there's no easy answer to the conundrum. You are France, and you have first rate trains, carbon free electricity, first rate healthcare, great food, great way of life, but indifferent customer service, high unemployment and a crippling state pension deficit.
Or you are American and you have lousy infrastructure and the worst greenhouse gas record in the world, people who work for long hours in the best Japanese fashion because their boss does, a healthcare system you wouldn't wish on an enemy, the world's largest concentration of obese people, and yet the society is vibrant, open (mostly), low unemployment for youth and a state pension deficit which is manageable.
Maybe both countries could learn from the other?