Taxed to the Hilt!

[LanguedocGal]

[quote user="RumziGal"][quote user="Iceni"]

I used to teach statistics and the only one I can find that is universally accepted is that France has the highest work output and works the least hours for any EEC country and US.

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But again, that's not in a vacuum.  There are fewer people in work in France than in some other countries, and those few have to get a whole lot done in 35 hours, so productivity looks good.  The price you pay for that is lower wages and higher unemployment.

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Iceni, if you used to teach statistics, then you should also wonder at the origins and collation of these figures.

An interesting theory on the high French productivity level (I've never bought into that based on my experience).  This came from a French chap who wrote it on a Liberation (I think) site a few months ago. The following is my wording

French companies invest heavily in machinery in order to minimise the number of employees (high charges), therefore, as national output figures do not reflect the proportion of machinery, the French are not really more productive than anyone else, simply highly mechanised in many sectors. 

I have no idea how true the above is, but it's an interesting theory and I don't buy those productivity figures - a bit like their unemployment figures.