Posted on 08/16/2002 10:30:08 AM PDT by Stand Watch Listen
As most Americans know, the U.S. economy is in the midst of slow, if not feeble, growth period. Even the Federal Reserve has acknowledged that the greatest long-term threat to the economy is a continued slowdown. Manufacturing activity remains relatively stagnant and there is certainly no need to remind anyone of the downtrodden stock market. Yet despite America's current economic weakness, it could be worse. You could live in Europe.
Elitists tend to place Europeans on a pedestal, admiring them as a more enlightened people than Americans. However, when it comes to "getting the job done", Europe stands in sharp contrast to the United States. Current estimates for 2002 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth in the U.S. range from about 2% to 4%. Most estimates for the twelve nations that make up the EuroZone, that is the countries which use the Euro as their currency, are far less encouraging. Why is this?
The primary reason for America's resiliency in the face of economic weakness lies in the work ethic of its people, which differs significantly from the people of EuroLand. Simply put, thanks to government regulation among the EuroLand's leading economies, many Europeans work less than ever before, while receiving more pay and more time off. Needless to say, this is not a formula for sustainable economic supremacy.
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development estimates that Germans will work less than 1,500 hours this year. Dividing that figure by a 50-week work-year, and assuming a 40-hour workweek, the average German worker would still have a whopping 12 weeks of vacation left per year. Though Germany lags most of the other EuroZone countries, figures aren't significantly better for the other countries, where typically 1,500 to 1,600 hours are worked per year.
Conversely, the average American works more than 1,800 hours per year, or approximately six hours more per week. If this doesn't seem like a significant difference, imagine how many more cars can be produced by a Detroit assembly line if all the workers put in six more hours per week than their German counterparts.
The most troubling aspect of this issue for the overall EuroZone economy is that the trend of hours worked among its member nations has consistently declined over the past few decades and there is no sign that the trend will reverse. In fact, France and some other EuroZone countries have mandated workweeks of no more than 35 hours.
The effects of this ever-decreasing lack of work ethic are and will be quite devastating to the EuroZone economy. Because of the extremely lenient labor laws, many of the world's largest companies are scaling back their operations in these countries. A company with an operations facility that needed 3,600 man-hours per week would need to hire only about 100 employees if located in the U.S. However, that same company would have to hire about 113 employees if their facility were located in Germany.
These lax labor conditions also virtually guarantee that the EuroZone will find climbing out of an economic recession or depression to be far more difficult than the U.S. In the early stages of an economic recovery, companies typically try to make their workforce more efficient by utilizing their current employees to their full capacity or more, i.e. working overtime rather than adding additional employees. With the overbearing labor laws present in the EuroZone, companies have little flexibility in creating a more efficient company to pull out of an economic downturn.
Americans will most likely see the ramifications of the EuroZone's lack of work through the currency exchange rates. Though earlier this year the Euro reached parity with the U.S. Dollar, this will likely become a rare event in the future, with the probable trend showing the Euro consistently losing ground versus the Dollar and other major world currencies. This will result in cheaper prices for European imports, but higher prices for U.S. exports to the EuroZone. If the EuroZone continues to reduce the workload of its people, the Euro will lose its position as one of the top three currencies in the world. Instead, the Chinese Renminbi will join the Japanese Yen and the American Dollar as the world's most valuable currencies.
So, again be thankful that you live in America, for we will break out of the economic downturn long before the Europeans and over the long-term, America will widen the economic gap between it and the countries of the EuroZone.
For these reasons, and many others. This is also yet another indicator that the Democratic Socialists are leading us towards irrelevance, poverty, dependence, and decay.
When the shooting starts or they are going broke due to no forethought, they start crying for the U.S.A. to once again bail them out.
When will they ever learn, I suppose not until we, the U.S.A., tells them that they are on their own or gives us something in return for protecting them when they won't spend the money to protect themselves.
One month leave per year- paid. 90 minute lunch breaks. Free medical, dental. Free health club. The gov't pays 75% of any tuition fees for college classes you take while you're in.
Other benefits:
I say many of these things tongue in cheek of course. Oh these things are all true, to really make the most of your military career you need to become an expert at exploiting the perks available to you. But before anybody runs out and signs up because it sounds like a "too good to be true deal"- remember I didn't tell you all the bad things... There are days you will have in the military where you literally just ask yourself "what in the name of God ever made me sign up for this sort of abuse?" Days where you swear you'll kill your recruiter if you ever see him again... And those are just moderately bad days- on the really bad ones- words just can't describe it.
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