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Comment by mytailorisrich | Hacker News Reader

This is a misleading statement.

The list shows Germans' work comparatively few hours. Now, if we look at productivity [1], it is good but basically the same as France and behind the US.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_labour_pr...

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Things have diverged for the US and Europe pretty significantly post-pandemic. I'd be curious to see updated data.

Europe has been sinking relatively to the US for a long time. Europe stalled when the global financial crisis hit in 2008 and never recovered. GDP of Eurozone was about the same as the US's in 2008, now the US's is almost double the Eurozone's.

Remember that 2008 was the year when US dollar crashed. €1 was suddenly worth $1.5 or even $1.6. If you look at GDP figures measured in US dollars and use 2008 as the baseline, you get nonsensical results for almost every country.

Real GDP growth from the 2008 peak to today has been a bit under 15% for the Eurozone and a bit under 35% for the US. The difference comes mostly from the lack of growth in the early 2010s due to the debt crisis and from the impact of the war in Ukraine.

The trend is the same and the point is the same: Growth has stalled in Europe for more than a decade (15% in 16 years...) while the US are steaming ahead.

Could this be accounted for by tech giants in the US?

Basically you have 4 parts:

- Tech Giants and concentration of global profits, don't look at revenue look at profits - demographics, Europe is now loosing workers every year - deficit spending, Europe has spent comparatively litte compared to the US - energy and Russia, a much bigger burden in Europe

Maybe ? (yes)

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EePHe5_U8AAf0Uy.jpg

Partially because most of the free money printed by central banks are directly or indirectly redirected to the US economy, first after 2008 and now since the pandemic

Which things? Based on what data? You're asking for data to substantiate your statement -- maybe first have the data?

I think your list plus this just informs that more working hours don't translate to higher productivity. If Germany is capable of having comparable labor productivity despite lower working hours, that would mean that the quality of their working hours is higher. Germany is more efficient translating 1 hour of work into GDP.

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