[susannah59]

The attitude of the Americans, who take an average of just 16 annual holiday days, including public holidays, differs greatly with that of some European nations. The Italians, for instance, take an average of 42 days, while the Germans take 35 days. The average in Britain is 28 days and the French take 37 days.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't we considerably more productive than most of Europe? Wonder if those numbers have anything to do with that?

[Army Air Corps]

"...aren't we considerably more productive than most of Europe?"

Yep. Most Americans work a full 40 hours per week or more. Many European countries cap the work week at about 30 to 35 hours.

[pollyannaish]

Despite what some claim, we didn't become such a wealthly, innovative nation by accident. Hard work got us here...and hard work keeps us here.

I'm actually very proud of it!

[pierrem15]

According to OECD purchasing-power parity figures, the French have a higher per-hour worked productivity than the US.

I find a lot of Euro economic data is supsect (even the Germans got caught cooking unemloyment statistics), but the French have a lot of natural advantages in a lot of luxury or top end products (think agriculture, haute couture, perfumes, cosmetics, etc.) and the EU has given them a much larger market in areas where they have a natural or historical monopoly. They have also bent or broken EU policy to their advantage whenever possible (think EU ag subsidies).

Their per-capita GDP is much lower than hours, but that is mainly due to the fact that they work a lot fewer hours than we do ( around 1450 vs. 1950 per year, if I recall) and because of the high unemployment.

If you have a decent job (like most French boomers do) and have some inherited property (like many do) you can live very well in France for someone with a modicum of education and not much ambition.