"The Horror, The Horror"

Paul Krugman has been busy on his weblog today. First, "The Real Showdown":

Next, he says it's time to quit bashing France. Here's part of his post:

Europe-bashing, by Paul Krugman: ...It’s a fixed idea among Americans that Europe – France, in particular – is an economic wasteland. According to documents leaked to the Boston Globe, Mitt Romney’s strategy is based on the equivalence “Hillary=France.” The horror, the horror.

But a visit to France – and/or a look at the statistics – makes it clear that the French economy gets a bum rap. I don’t want to go overboard here: France has a lot of problems. But it’s doing much better than the American caricature would have it.

French productivity – output per hour – is about the same as ours. What’s more, even during the period 1995-2005 – the years when we Americans were boasting about our productivity boom – French productivity grew only half a point slower than US productivity. And the US productivity boom now seems to be over.

Also, tales of mass unemployment are greatly exaggerated. French residents in their prime working years, ages 25-54, are as likely to be employed as their American counterparts...

Now, it’s true that French GDP per capita is lower than ours. That reflects three things: the French work shorter hours; French people under 25 are less likely to be employed than young Americans, and the French are much more likely than Americans to retire early.

Short working hours are a choice – and it’s at least arguable that the French have made a better choice than America, the no-vacation nation.

Low employment among the young is a complicated story. To some extent it may represent lack of job openings. But a lot of it is the result of good things: young French are more likely to stay in school than young Americans, and fewer French students are forced by financial necessity to work while studying.

Finally, the French retire early. That’s a real problem: their pension system creates perverse incentives. We, of course, have this superb program called Social Security, which does a much better job.

So yes, France has problems. But what supersized CEO paychecks – or Hillary Clinton - have to do with avoiding France’s mistakes on pension policy is a mystery to me.

Still, what about the future? Aren’t we surging ahead in information technology? Um, no. In fact, the US is being left behind in the broadband revolution.

So how about letting up on the Europe-bashing?

Comments

[Brian]

It is sad but we do seem to be the no-vacation nation; and I am rebelling!!! this is the first time that my vacations have bade me a rebel.

[BJ Feng]

It's sorta like we shouldn't bash the C student because he was able to get 22 out of 30 questions right. Not only that, he was able to answer the same 22 questions as the A student, who got 28 questions right, a difference of only 6 questions. So the C student is just the same as the A student, no difference really. In fact, it wouldn't be all that horrible for the A student to become a C student. The person who aspires to be an A student should just shut up and settle for a C instead.

[jonfernquest]

Yeah, go Krugman go, bust that ignorance producing machine

[reason]

BJF...
Can't you read? Haven't you noticed that the French medical system is often held up as a model.

You may have different values than us, but you should at least acknowledge that unlike in a school test where the answers are all decided from on high, social choices often come down to differences in taste. It is not possible to rate them on a single scale.

Please stop being so impossibly ideological. You just make yourself appear stupid.

[Mike]

Uh, no, Mr Feng. I take it you didn't understand what was just written above (and also that you've never spent time in France). I recommend reading classes, and a French vacation.

[german_reader]

@BJ Feng

It always depends on which questions you choose and what your preferences are. From an European perspective the US is the C student with much less than 22 out of 28 right.

[Peter Schaeffer]

France is neither heaven nor hell. For years, I thought that only the US (of the OECD nations) had terrible slums. Then I visited Paris... And that was years before the banlieues started burning and tournante was added to the French language... And English.

However, perhaps the most notable feature of France is how much it is like the US in ways that PC Americans never admit. Take a look at Transportation by Car. The overwhelming proportion of passenger travel in France is by car. Where are French people moving too? The suburbs.

[Esben]

BJF, so America is the A student, right? But what if the A-student worked his entire youth away to get that A? With stress, stomach ulcers and sleepless nights created by the compulsion to be the best student of them all. Got isolated from friends and family, and became an anti-social one-trick-pony.

Meanwhile perhaps the C student worked moderately hard, but also took plenty of time to visit his family, hang out with friends, pursue personally developing hobbies such as painting or guitar and generally ended up as a well rounded and laid-back person?

I know who I'd prefer to be.

[anne]

Well, I am in a France-bashing mood just now or at least a Nicolas Sarkozy and Berhard Kouchner bashing mood. I am not the least interested in a France that comes to be America in urging war in Iran, and suddenly Paris seems a whole lot less attractive when in the midst of the craziness of a Kouchner. Other than Sarkozy, the would-be little general re-born, I do love France however.

[anne]

Paul Krugman is absolutely right, and France is lovely in so many ways, but the need for the French is not to allow an imperial minded Sarkozy to entice them with self-destructive domestic or international fantasies. Know how fortunate France is, for being French.

[Cyrille]

Me, I'm seeking political asylum next year, until the crazy power drunkard is gone.

OK, it won't actually be political asylum, since we can move freely within the EU, but it clearly is a major factor in wanting to be away.