Man, what a BS argument this is. Do you have any idea what it costs to hire, and worse FIRE a French worker? You are a moron in France if you don’t have the most up to date and efficient equipment, as you can’t afford to hire actual human capital.
What I find amazing is, given the amount of waiters, busboys, Walmart clerks that the US has employed, that the US is nearly as productive as France when using hours worked as a baseline. That is the real story.
Another way to look at GDP is as an average over total population. This way, you can’t game the number with unemployment or early retirement. It is similar to looking at the average revenue per headcount when you are thinking about buying a company or downsizing two divisions. It tells you how top heavy you are and how productive your workforce actually is.
Average GDP per person in the US based on total population is $44,067, in France it is $36,349. This means the average GDP per US citizen is 18% higher than the average French citizen. Of course, this uses 2006 USD, does the OECD account for the decline in the dollar? If not, this gap is probably even wider when using PPP.
Viva la socialism indeed.
