The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted France’s tourism industry, with the total contribution of travel and tourism to its GDP increasing by about four percent compared to 2019. In late November, international tourism revenues in France reached about 59 billion euros. In 2020, France tourism statistics were 35,958,000,000.00, a 49.19 decline from 2019, while in 2019, they were 70,776,000,000.00, a 2.4 decline from 2018. However, France’s tourism industry has largely recovered from the impact of Covid, with spending in 2022 surpassed pre-pandemic levels.
In 2021, tourism GDP represented 3.0 of France’s GDP, up from 4.1 before the health crisis. At the end of December 2022, international tourism revenue in France was €58 billion, up by €1.2 billion compared to 2019. Tourism is a major part of the French economy, representing close to 8 of GDP and supporting 2.9 million jobs (10.9 of employment) in the country. In 2023, France was visited by 100 million foreign tourists, making it the most visited country in the world.
The total contribution of travel and tourism to GDP in France reached nearly 250 billion euros, exceeding pre-pandemic levels. In 2021, tourism contributed 3.0 of the wealth created by the French economy, i.e., 75.7 billion euros. Last year, WTTC’s Economic Impact Research (EIR) revealed that the French Travel and Tourism sector is expected to grow at an average of 3 per cent.
Tourism revenues in France averaged 4148.16 EUR Million from 2008 until 2024, reaching an all-time high of 8069.00 EUR Million in August 2023. In 2023, the tourism sector of France recorded new highs, contributing to its GDP with an aim to reach €246 billion.
📹 The Economy Of France: How The French Set Global Economic Trends
························· France is a global trendsetter for other economies. This goes from the …
Why is tourism so big in France?
France boasts 49 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, including medieval towns, castles, religious buildings, forts, and landscapes, which attract tourists from 17 regions. Skiing in France is second to none, catering to skiers of all skill levels. Resorts cater to different levels, offering wide open pistes for beginners, fast-paced red runs for intermediate skiers, and challenging black runs for pros. Off-piste areas are also available for confident skiers.
Seasonal skiers often choose popular alpine resorts like Chamonix, Courchevel, Morzine, Tignes, and Val d’Isère. The world’s largest connected ski area, Les Trois Vallées, offers the best high altitude terrain, ensuring snowfall. The ski slopes in Chamonix in the French Alps are a must-see for anyone looking to experience the beauty of France.
What percentage of Spain’s GDP is tourism?
Spain’s economy’s current buoyancy is attributed to the strength of its tourism sector, which has experienced strong growth in the first four months of 2024, exceeding records from 2023. Tourism GDP accounted for 0. 9 pps of Spain’s annual GDP growth of 2. 5 in 2023, and new forecasts for 2024 predict it will contribute around 0. 6 pps to the expected growth rate of 2. 4, accounting for 13. 0 of total GDP. International tourism has seen its best start in history, while domestic tourism is showing signs of moderation.
What is France’s world ranking in tourism?
France has become a global leading travel market in the past three decades, thanks to its rich tourism offer, including Paris, the French Riviera, and the Alps. In 2023, France maintained the top spot in the ranking of countries with the highest number of international tourist arrivals worldwide, with 100 million arrivals. The total contribution of travel and tourism to France’s GDP also recovered from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing by about four percent compared to 2019.
Germany, the United Kingdom, and Belgium accounted for the highest share of international tourist arrivals in France, representing 40% of arrivals in the European destination. Spain and Italy ranked as the most visited travel destinations from France, followed by the United Kingdom and Morocco. Despite a strong rebound in outbound tourism spending, the expenditure of French travelers abroad remained slightly below pre-pandemic figures.
Paris, home to the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre, is a key driver of the country’s inbound tourism market, ranking ahead of London, Istanbul, and Barcelona in 2023 with nearly 22 million arrivals. The total number of tourist arrivals to Paris and the Île-de-France region rose to over 47 million that year, growing by eight percent from 2022 and nearly catching up with pre-pandemic levels.
Which country has the largest tourist economy?
In 2023, the United States surpassed pre-pandemic levels in terms of travel and tourism contribution to GDP, with a total of 2. 36 trillion U. S. dollars. China and Germany followed closely, with travel and tourism contributing around 1. 3 trillion and 488 billion U. S. dollars, respectively. The total contribution of travel and tourism to global GDP reached just under 10 trillion U. S. dollars in 2023. GDP, the total value of goods and services produced in a country in a year, is a crucial indicator of a country’s economic strength.
What is the most touristic country in Europe?
France, the most visited destination in Europe, saw a significant increase in visitors in 2023, welcoming 100 million visitors. This marked a significant increase in tourism, with nearly 90% of pre-pandemic levels met. Countries like France, Spain, Turkiye, Italy, and the United Kingdom are emerging as vibrant tourism centers, offering a glimpse of brighter days ahead. The top ten most visited countries in Europe are France, Spain, Turkiye, Italy, and the United Kingdom, all of which are attracting tourists due to their captivating beauty and cultural treasures.
How much of the French economy is tourism?
France has been the world’s leading tourist destination for over 30 years, with 90 million international tourists visiting in 2019. Tourism accounts for 8 of France’s GDP and is driven by passionate people who uphold its reputation. French Prime Minister Jean Castex and Minister of State for Tourism, French Nationals Abroad and Francophonie, Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne presented the Destination France plan, which aims to set a 10-year trajectory for the tourism sector to bounce back after the public health crisis. The plan aims to consolidate France’s stable position as the world’s number one tourist destination.
What percentage of the economy is tourism?
The US travel and tourism industry is a significant contributor to the economy, with international visitors spending $233. 5 billion in 2019 and contributing nearly $640 million a day. The industry generates $1. 9 trillion in economic output, supports 9. 5 million American jobs, and accounts for 2. 9 of the US GDP. The International Trade Administration supports the industry through its National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO) and the U. S. Commercial Service, providing data and related products to support international outreach and promotion efforts.
With over 100 offices in the US and 75 countries worldwide, the NTTO promotes US policies that encourage competitiveness, provides business counseling, match-making, and promotional support services, ensures that regulations do not adversely impact industry competitiveness, and provides information, trade data, and market analysis to the industry, partners, and policy makers. Maintaining close relationships with the industry helps enhance its competitiveness and overseas profile.
Which country has the most tourism?
France, the world’s most visited country, offers a variety of attractions including natural sites, diverse cities, and historic villages. While Paris remains the top tourist city, international visitors are drawn to medium-sized cities by the sea or mountains. Top destinations include Chamonix, Aix-en-Provence, and Strasbourg, known for its stunning Christmas market. With the Olympic Games and the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings, France is expected to welcome over 100 million tourists in 2024. The country’s diverse culture, cuisine, and charming historic villages make it a popular destination for travelers.
Which country is number 1 in tourism?
France leads the list of the most visited cities in Europe with 89. 4 million arrivals in 2019, thanks to its diverse regional cultures, historical sites, museums, gastronomy, and romantic charm. The country’s beautiful countryside, including villages, mountains, vineyards, and castles, attracts tourists. Spain follows with 83. 7 million arrivals, thanks to its historical richness, sunny coasts, architectural beauty, flamenco music, and bull running experiences.
📹 FRANCE — (Economy/Politics/tourism)
Something important in france is the difference between the big city and the rest of the country. If you look at the road, and railways, EVERYTHING lead to Paris. it’s really a “all road lead to rome” situation, and centralisation is a big big thing, and a problem when the big city life is costly and overcrowed and the countryside empty and poor.
Thank you for this article about France. Though I did not find the part about unemployment in France quite accurate even if the criticism regarding the education system is fair. Separating from an employee is now much easier and inexpensive as it was before (severance cost is maximum 1 month per year of presence…). It would have been a good starting point for talking about the massive space inequalities in France between the Paris Region which is extremely wealthy and the rest of the country (especially North-East regions that never truly recovered from the closing of the coal, steel and textile industries in the 70s). One last point, even if leather goods (and Luxury in general) are an important export for France, you did not mentioned that France was a key global player in Aeronautics, Space, Automotive, Nuclear Power, Rolling Stock and Pharmaceutical industries…
2:38 The painting is from Eugène Delacroix entitled “La Liberté guidant le peuple” or Liberty leading the people in English which actually doesn’t refer to the French revolution of 1789 but instead alludes to the July revolution of 1830 which toppled Charles the tenth. Otherwise, great article as always, keep it up and thank you for the first place I mean even though there are only 3 countries for now ^^
France actually has an “elite” university system called “Grandes Ecoles”. It is very different and completely independent from regular university as it is hyper selective (competitive exams for places after the first two years of studies) and a whole lot harder with an enormous workload (40+ hours a week of actual course, plus all the homework that entails). This creates a bit of a two class system in the country, as virtually all very high paying jobs (company executives, highly placed finance executives, all presidents, most government ministers, high ranking diplomats, R&D scientists, etc) are filled by people that come from this system. So the country does have a problem with the value of their education versus the cost of young employees but only for the lower placed employees.
As a French fan, I found this article very interesting! About education, a big issue is the disparity between the elite schools that are highly selected and extremely efficient at training workers (most major CEOs come from a few schools) and the rest of the non selective universities which have an unimpressive reputation locally and abroad.
Hi, this was a great article and as an American who studied and now works in France I have a bit to say!! I think part of the employment problem here as well is how rigid the economy is in terms of being able to get jobs for certain professions. French employers expect you to have studied exactly what you will work in, even just to get an internship. In the US for instance plenty of people will study literature and go on to work in marketing, I know someone who studied art history and now works in business consulting. In America it really doesn’t matter what you’ve studied as long as you put in the work and are willing to learn. Meanwhile I have friends who are in the corporate world in France and basically they say when they are hiring if an applicant hasn’t studied the field that the job is in (i.e. marketing degree for a marketing job, finance degree for a finance job) or gone to the proper school they will not even look at the CV. So it basically means you are locked into your field from very early on and it’s hard to switch because more often than not it means going back to school. It’s also not considered weird/bad here to stay a student for an extremely long time, I know some people who didn’t start working full time until 29 years old. Lots of people will just constantly enroll in masters, phds, etc. Just my two cents (or centimes, I should say)
Great article, I think it does summarize the current situation of the French economy very well. Actually, @EconomicsExplained, the reason for this persistent high unemployment rate is the deindustrialization which happened from the late 70s onwards. The French industries were made out of big companies which heavily outsourced their production abroad, while leaving behind only engineers/businessmen in R&D centres. The main difference between France and all of its developped neighbours is that its economy and society is heavily centralized, which led to having many successfull megacorporations which could easily delocalize. Countries like Italy or Germany have 2x and 4x as many export-oriented SMEs, which are harder to delocalize and invest more in the local economy
This article is so spot on. I’m an Aussie with a French wife and I always scratch my head as to why France is the way it is. My wife came to Australia as an economic migrant. I tried to settle there and set up a business but 2 months of filling out forms later I still hasn’t even registered my business. In Australia you apply online and get an ABN in a week.
I’m from France and this is pretty on point. I would add a few things to try and explain the unemployment (which has been around this level since the 90s): – Very high taxes and minimum wage, making a lot of industries noncompetitive – As you mentioned, generous welfare makes it possible to live without working, but this takes up a huge share of budget. And French public spending is by far the highest in the EU and probably in the world – Very strong unions, especially in the public sector, and very liberal right to strike – Generally a nanny-state mentality – people expect the state to do everything for them Fun fact – the 35-hour work week was actually introduced to combat unemployment, but failed miserably at it. Now the government is thinking about going back to 40-hours but they don’t dare as it will cause massive protests and strikes
Hey! Loved the article 🙂 Would it be possible to include a GINI index ranking as well to show how well the GDP per capita is spread. This would stop gulf states running away with the show despite the majority of people living lives not reflective of the high GDP per capita. Unless somehow you were going to include this in this category. In which case wouldn’t it make more sense to replace this category with quality of living? Just a thought!
This article is misleading. I am a French engineer. I can tell you: I have worked with colleagues from Ivy leagues and my university (only within top 20 in France), prepared me much better than my competition. Bureaucracy: you bet. Laziness: depends who (specially not Engineers). If not, ask to my full scholarship in one of the best universities in the planet why my 12/20 GPA in a french university translated to an A (4.0) in the US. If anything, I would argue that one of the French comparative advantages for french corporations is having overqualified underemployed engineers readily available. I would earn much less in France than what I earn in the US. Yet my french colleagues are every bit as good as me, and compete harshly for an opportunity in France.
After visiting Greece, I have a whole new level of respect for France. The culture, food, clothes, wine, and sites, definitely worthwhile experiences for sure. Paris is congested, but it does give you access to Marseille with its beautiful views and Brussels with that great chocolate a few hours away. If you prefer a slower pace, Nice may be your ticket. Monaco, the name says it all and if you prefer great shopping please check out Italy. Of course this was prior to what is happening now:(
Just my two cents as a trained economist from France ! In the article, I think you underrated France’s real adoration for its most scientifically abled. Philosophic and Literary prowess are no longer the most valuable qualities in the Elite since, I think, the 80s at least. I feel part of the problem is precisely that technical studies are more elitist than in other places where they’re pretty much the norm but are on average less difficult to complete. As such, while being an engineer obviously carries prestige everywhere France exacerbates It to a completely different level. There are very significant distinction between engineers based on the prestige value of the school rather than on the engineer’s specialty (In France you’re not simply an engineer, but an “X” or a “Centralien” or a “Ponts”… You catch the gist). Entire carreer paths in the industrial sector are barred for everyone that wasn’t trained as an engineer despite significant job experience in the relevant sector. Finally, and maybe that’s the most detrimental part of this mindset on a day to day basis, there’s this extremely prevalent idea of thinking that If a person is good enough to be an engineer It can also be good to do pretty much anything else except maybe being a MD. A bit like the Roman idea that good politicians would make good generals but updated to the XXth century (can’t really say the XXIst…). Somewhat ironically, It therefore sometimes feels like sometimes all the best technically minded engineers (those that scored the best at the insanely selective entry exams two years into tertiary education) except in Aeronautics leave France to work abroad, while France is left mostly with the carreer administrators from the same schools.
The problem with unemployement is that everyone are doing long studies (as they are basically free, and this is good), but at the end no one wants to do the repetitive and boring jobs that every country needs because of their education. A lot of student a choosing their studies first because they like the subject regardless to if they can get a job with these.
This article started well, and the global picture shown here is correct, but i”ve been a bit surprised for some reasons ; France is a great country, with a huge influence on the world’s economy and that has been correctly explained. But as the german says, the devil hides in detailles. – The understanding of the revolution(s) is intresting and have some truth in it, but is certainly a little bit exagerated, France isn’t the only product of ths “Delta” time in history. It is true that the society (shall i say the STATE) has as it’s primary objective the well beeing of the country and it’s people and to solve people’s issues. It is key to understand and the author got this straight (honourable) Now what I desagree – Tourisme and french economy. Yes Toursime is a huge part of the french economy, 7%, (the UK financial services is also 7% of the british economy.) And is worth talking about, but doing so, major parts of the french economy have been whiped out. The industry is robust. Car manufacturers are strongs, the banking and insurance system is big. Pharmaceuticals compagnies, Aerospace and aircraft industry (first french export), transporation and energy, defense. French economy can be seen has developped in most sectors, outshining in none regarding their takes in the national GDP but still, saying Luxuary and tourism is the key of it’s economy is like saying Germany is only good at doing cars. So a focus on the luxuary industry which isn’t it’s biggest wasn’t the best way to talk about it’s economy (without beeing incorrect).
Sounds to me like their issues, particularly in relation to entrepreneurship and employment come from the tensions between having an economic system which benefits from having few worker’s rights, and a culture which highly values workers rights. The only way to resolve those tensions is with a bureaucratic state to enforce the latter. If your goal was to fix these economic problems, you’d either have to replace those workers rights with something else which the working class would accept, or to turn their economic system into something which doesn’t incentivize exploitation, thus making the bureaucracy unnecessary.
16:00 About investing in France: If you buy company shares, on top of your national taxes and fees you will have to pay the French financial transactions tax and social tax on dividends, even if you are not French and have never been to France. In theory they would reimburse you for the social tax at least, but the application is so expensive that it only makes sense for big investors. Goldman Sachs is getting their tax reimbursement. You? Me? Not so much. To me, France seems to be overly bureaucratic and shooting itself in the foot with things like taxes that achieve the opposite of what they are supposed to. The investment climate feels downright hostile, actually, and I was just looking to invest a few hundred €. When looking for places to invest, I skip right past France.
im from Norway and within Scandinavia + Iceland there is a strong relation to ‘ not the joy of having work ‘ but the SHAME of being without a job/purpose.. the times I have been without work you just want to avoid all friends and family because they constantly ask when you will find a job and the endless hassle of girlfriends and mothers showing you job articles while talking about you at parties.. but thats no way to live.. so you find a job I live in France: They are a proud people.. and maybe so proud they are not ashamed to be unemployed.. shame and guilt is a bigger drive than fun and joy.. I don’t know about Finland.. but guess they are similar to Scandinavia/Iceland
The problem with Frances economy is actually the combination of a minimum wage and strong collective bargaining institutions. It is much easier for these institutions to negotiate a flat minimum wage increase than it is to pressure businesses to force up wages. But consequence, the minimum wage in France is so high that it is near equal to the median wage, meaning nearly. half the population is on minimum wage naturally, this has brought horizontal economic mobility to a standstill with the only real ways of improving income being vertical mobility aka promotions, which are of very limited supply. In other words, france completely lacks meritocracy, and so individual wealth is stagnating. Meanwhile in places like norway and sweden, all wages are high but the wages are more meritocratic between the deciles, averaging a 1.2x moltiplier over the previous decile. It is fair, and also meritocratic, because it ONLY has collective bargaining
What about making a article, probably about 20 minutes long about adding all the countries you have had done before to the leader board? It’d be cool to see where you rank countries like Canada, Norway, Italy, etc. You’ve already done all the research for the countries so it’d be a relatively easy article to make and you could shamelessly plug all your prior articles to get more sweet, sweet views. Top notch content btw.
I mostly agree with the points you made, but your perspective seems like it completely misses the point. You could also argue that people in France live in a mostly prosperous country with a proud history, beautiful places, and renowned culture. and are happy to just accept their current lifestyle or only work in a field that they’re passionate about.
Great articles, lots of true things but some corrections to make: In France, If you work as an executive, a chef and lots of other jobs, forget about the 35 hours week. For example, as an executive in a consulting firm, you will have a contract with no fixed limit of hours. One benefit compared to other nations though is that there are 25 days of paid holiday (no matter what kind of job), which is great. Also, in my opinion, it is fairly naive to compare France to Sweden or Norway. France has 7 times the population of Sweden, a much more complicated history, a colonial past, was partly destroyed during the world war and needed to get rebuilt quickly. This has led us to create a bit of a melting pot nation, which is great in many ways as it brings us cultural diversity and part of our creative genius relies on this. However, it does make it harder to reach a full consensus among the population. As a result, the country is usually harder to reform, and that slows down changes needed in Universities for example, which indeed aren’t the best at teaching practical skills outside of medicine or law. However, France has an excellent (albeit elite) system of top-notch semi-public engineering and business schools with a world-class reputation. If you need a proof of it, try to look at the number of French Developers working in the valley, or French mathematicians being some of the top traders or risk managers in the city of London.
American living in a French overseas territory. Great article given what we’re seeing in France today. Feel like there was a missed opportunity on the value French overseas territories provide, and it’s control over west African nations. Also Belgium, come guys Belgium is prime for a article. Flanders vs wallonia, shift in wealth, language borders, world wars, beer companies…. Would love to see it.
I really enjoy these articles, but i have a question regarding this particular one. The French government receives almost 80% of West African countries’ GDPs, that they’re not obliged to give back. They have been receiving this since the mid 60s. These payments are a condition set on West African countries for agreeing to put an end to their colonial rule. I want to know why there’s absolutely no mention of this. You’re discussing the economy of France, your mention things like high social welfare, not many people actually looking for jobs, that the french have it easy. But isn’t a large part of that due to the fact that they receive billions of dollars basically for free. Why don’t you mention that part of the money sustaining France’s economy is coming directly from tax payers in West Africa.
To add something as a French. If we don’t want to work (unpaid) for experience it is because we do not earn any compensation from the state for doing so. When a student finishes school he earn zero money from social security because, the only way to get money from social security when you are unemployed is to have worked before. Internships are (usualy) the worst type of contract you can get (minimum ~500€/mounth if not 0, no unemployement help after and no retierement) and you are much better working as a cashier (Minimum wage ~1300€ + full social help).
Here’s a question I pose to the rest of the audience: If your economy is as large, strong and as stable as France’s, is it necessarily a bad thing that it is stagnant? Sure it’s growth may be stagnant, but that may also mean that France’s current standard of living, which is by all means quite high, is actually sustainable. This website has covered various countries which have countries that are dependent (to various extents) on limited natural resources. So while they may be growing, if they do not diversify their income, their growth may stop at a point where the country is only developing. The first counterpoint I can think of is, “Yes, it is bad, because as discussed France has the unlimited resource of tourism and prestige, and thus should have unlimited growth.” and I do agree to that to some extent, however, countries can only have so much tourism (it is typically very high, but there is still a limit on it regardless). What do you all think? I’d like to see some interesting points both ways
Great stuff. I especially liked the discussion of why French aren’t that motivated to work, although I didn’t hear about how/if/why the income tax rates reduced the incentive for people to work. It totally makes sense that generous unemployment pay/benefits would lower the incentives to work, but suspect that is a big factor in a lot of European nations. Please include more discussion of tax rates and policies.
1) I think you missed a cultural trait that permeates many points you touched upon: risk minimization (over profit maximizing, or social well-being). The whole argument about university not being practical enough is the epitome of that. There are many countries with low youth unemployment with very “universitary” higher education (e.g. the US). The truth is that French don’t want to take the risk to teach an employee how to do a specific role or job and report this charge on the higher education system. On this point things are starting to get better with the development of technical apprenticeship which cut the cost in half. This very traits can also explain limited entrepreneurship (one doesn’t want to lose his/her station in society for an uncertain business venture). That also is evolving with the development of micro-entrepreneurship, the experience and feedback from global competition, and the spread of Anglo-saxon culture in French business and self-development culture. 2) The French public education system is unsure of its overall mission (maintaining social cohesion by making good citizen or fostering curiosity and learning-skill) which makes most French bad lifelong learners and otherwise rarely interesting in learning new skill (again why risk rock the boat if you’re already safe in socio-economic status?). To that you can add a system which is conflicted between elitism (posing as meritocracy for the best students) or laxity (for the rest) and so struggle to direct students in lines of education that could seal a social status for a lifetime.
With regards to the unemployment rate, as a foreigner working and living in France, I’ve come to see the 35 hour work week as a myth. On paper, your contract does state that you need to work 35 hours, but it’s not uncommon for employers to demand 40 to 45 hour work weeks with no overtime. The need for the extra hours, in my opinion, stems from the fact the employers don’t want to hire new employees, because the employer tax rate is pretty high. It was explained to me like this : In addition to paying the workers salary, employers have to pay that same amount to the government in the form of taxes and employee benefits, so if an employees salary is about 30 000, said employee actually costs the company about 60.
As a French, when I see the 0 growth, I was badly surprised. But then I realize that: – the yellow Jacquet alone is worth at least a -2 ( every service in every big city close every Saturday for a year plus the weekly millions of repair cost) – the coronavirus – as part of the civil service myself, my starting salary is ~10% that of my colleague 20 years ago ( for a inflation of ~33%) so I accept your number.
Hey, just some French loving its country’s history. You might say Napoleon ruling was more authoritarian, but for French people it was actually better than the revolution itself, as the human rights gave a foundation, but Napoleon came in with the civil rights that are a continuation and direct application of the human rights, but this time without the guillotine. Also, you’re vidéo is one of the best ones done by a foreign about French economy and more importantly culture and working world. Also, just as a small figure, each year in France more than 7000 seats in engineering schools (the equivalent of good colleges in the US) are left empty each year. France industries needs a lot of skilled workers but most of the en employed people are not qualified enough or not qualified in the good carrier path.
Trade deficit is an incredibly stupid concern based on an incredibly facile understanding of economics. It assumes that countries buy and sell products in blocks, like “China owns 17% of America”. That’s just not how this incredibly complex system actually works. When someone obtains your currency to buy a product, they’re going to get as much currency as they need to conduct their transaction, no more. So, if French wine is denominated in euros, the customer will obtain as many euros as are necessary to make the purchase, and no more. if they want to buy a French business, or French real-estate, or anything denominated in euros, you’ll get that currency. And if you have an unfavorable balance of trade, the relative value of your currency will drop, relative to the currency of the purchaser. It’s back to good old supply and demand. There’s more demand for Yuan than there are for Euros, the value of the Euro should fall, relative to the Yuan. Which means that in normal circumstances, a skewed balance of trade should be a self-solving problem: If foreigners don’t want to buy your stuff, it will get cheaper. For the people doing all of their business denominated in euros, nothing has changed. So, why does balance of trade factor so much in political discussions? Because having an unfavorable trade balance is incredibly inconvenient for the ruling class. When you have a large amount of currency, and you want to spend that currency abroad, you want the buying power of your money to be high.
I watched all the Economics explained article, in no European countries economic you never have mentioned colonialism, it matters more in case of France because of it neoclassicism of African nations. you said France is a trendsetter and nowadays it set trend for exploitation of poor countries for china.
As an American who moved to France to study for 2 years then worked in Paris for 1 year, I can say that the section between 12:00 – 15:00 is 100% correct. This part clearly highlights the main reason why I moved back to the US. France is a wonderful place to visit – not the greatest place to work IMO (if work is important to you). “They have it easy” is what I kept telling myself the whole time (frankly, spoiled). I grew tired of the endless strikes and demands from the people – especially during Covid. Then perusal people stay in their jobs forever who are incompetent was just too much.
I wouldn’t call the country innovative, it’s just not bad at a lot of stuff. The main issue is they want good wages, healthcare, good education without having to learn English, more time off than other countries while still getting paid as much, to pretend that they still control west africa (and that west africa is happy about this), childcare and yet are unwilling to pay for it all with appropriate taxation, like the world owes it all to them just because they are French.
The point about people willingly choosing not to work, while having some truth to it, is quite overblown. You get some unemployement help based on your previous salaries, but this decreases over time and to keep it you have to prove that you are actively looking for a job. From the people I’ve known that found themselves in this state, this is quite stressful, and if you don’t manage to find a job within the allocated timeframe, you will have to take a low-qualification job that essentially nobody else wanted to do. Sure, quite an understandable system, but far from the simplistic statement that “people choose not to work”. Except if you somehow don’t have to pay for rent and food, not working puts yourself immediately in a precarious and stressful situation. The minimum wage is quite high, but quite in line with other Western European countries. Its value also vastly varies between cities and the country : the rising rent prices also affect France, so living in a city on minimum wage is barely enough by yourself. If you do it as a couple with two children, you are below the poverty line. The 35h work week only dictates how many hours you do in a week being having to be paid overtime. Funnily enough, the Germans, who are typically stereotyped as hard-working, work on average a bit less than the French per week. Finally, on a last remark, I don’t understand the statement about internships or a supposed hostility towards “working for experience”. This may be true for universities, yes, but if you have done your research properly you must have seen quite quickly that they are only a tiny part of the French educational ecosystem.
– 50 years of massive immigration, mostly from africa and algeria (non-eu newborn births: 40%) – huge taxation: 2nd most taxed country in the world (behind denmark) – 15% of the population living under the poverty threshold (over 9 millions people out of 67 millions) – underestimated unemployment official numbers
A lot of misconceptions and outright errors in there. I’ll just point that the 35h a week is not what you presented it to be. the french workers spent more time working on average than the other european nations according to EU Statistics. And furthermore the French have the highest productivity per hours in the EU according to those stats. (here a source institutmontaigne.org/en/blog/setting-record-straight-working-time-france) Most people I know work 41h per weeks, and get paid overtime for those 6 hours. You just sprouted cliché you can find anywhere. And there were several others in there. It is extremely disapointing and made me realize that you might’ve been bullshiting your way through most of your articles.
As a french the unemployement is a a very complex situation, quickly explain the demand is not adapted to the offer (in job concept of demand/offer are inverted (dumbing this down for youtube comment) ). There is a lot of demand in sector where no one or very few are trained, and a lot of offers in sector that are saturated. In addition, if you take on you to retrain on something else, a lot of time you will have difficulty to access even to entry jobs because you need at least 3 to 5 years of experience at minimum. It is why a lot of young generation have difficulties to find a job, and they are overly represented in unemployement figure… At one point they will take a job at Mac Donald, while looking for an entry job suiting their education. Also nowadays promotion in France are very rare, especially in bureaucratic company (a French particularities) often you have to wait for someone to leave, or leave yourself to take a better job at an other company. Plus it is not like in the US where if you are good at your job you get promoted, often if France if you want to be promoted better be a “politician” than an “expert”. Unemployement is the major issue in France, and it’s the root of social issue, Yellow Jacket are a good exemple of that. And even if the official number is 9 to 10% it’s estimated that up to 20% of population are unemployed or without activity, this difference is due to the criterion to be able to be registered at Pole Emploi. It’s a statistic games, were the governement prefer to had a criterion that expel some people to the unemployement statistics to show some progress, there is different tool offering job very different than your training, put you in a mandatory training, or give you incentive to become a freelance.
12:06 I’m French, and this is perfectly nailed on the head, bravo! I would add: France was heavily influenced by communism during the course of the 20th century and is still feels its crazy ideology today: many French politicians still defend this tainted ideology, and French people hate money and hate rich people. It’s ingrained in the everyday French culture. Becoming rich is pretty much a deadly sin here, and because French people lack that motivation to become rich, they become depressed and complain all the time. That’s why they’re so eager to protest and not so eager to work hard. I believe there are studies about how surprisingly depressed French people are, my theory is because of the hate they have for money and success.
That French company worker example It’s like my father situation here in Spain. He worked in Telefónica (biggest telecom company in Spain and one of the world) They can virtually fired him, so the company make a retirement campaign and paid wages to my father until he reach 65 years old. Sounds crazy, but my uncle who retired in the early 2000’s in the same company do it a 50 years old. Oh Spain 🙂
As someone from a business school I noticed quiet a brain drain from France recently. many students here in the UK are from rich French families who prefer for their kids to have foreign education and preferably work in the UK or US. due to economic stagnation and relatively high youth unemployment in France.
I would answer that job cut-downs in what was French located industries have impacted us a lot for the last decades. And it is still happening. The result is loads of specified factory workers with little education out of what they progressively learned in the industry. It is hard to reintegrate them in growing service based environment. On top of that, even if it still leaves millions of people in difficult situations, State support does not force people to go work in whatever they can be proposed to.
Well coming from someone who started a business in France in IT, and hired people for this business. I can only say it has been simple and the technical quality and dedication of workers is excellent. Sure there are high social contributions but actually considering what we and our personnel get back I really don’t mind paying. Nonetheless a rather fair portrait of the country. Cheers
It’s important to point out that almost 60% of France’s GDP comes from the public sector, the highest of any OECD country. Public companies tend to run semi independently so they’re not really following a overarching plan from the government (that would be a disaster), but they are very willing not to be profitable, as the consequences are not existant. It leads to bureaucracy, inefficiency and a vicious political cicle where a majority of the electorate are essentially government workers.
I would just like to adress a french point of view on this article. I agree that french are extremely demanding but people here avec a social vision of public services, we value so much things such as free university or free public health care. This is our value, but we are not doing certain things as efficient as they could be. What is sad however is that we have been completely outpaced in new technologies. Yes, « made in France » is such a powerful brand but it is all related with what we did in the past. Building new technological advanced industry ready to create new growth is what we are all thriving for. Mindset is changing and I hope we will go in the right direction. Ps: Emmanuel Macron just created an economic concile with the best economist of this generation, this would be an interesting subject to cover in the future.
One of the major problem with the young adults’ and students’ skills and employment is that lots of companies are relying on internships to fill some low-skilled as well as some lower echelon roles which aren’t valued as such. Providing minimum training to interns and expecting them to perform just okay isn’t good for the companies and the market, as these jobs could be filled by actual experienced employees who would fulfil the maximum potential of the role and create more added value. Instead, these companies are relying on an underpaid, untrained and underappreciated workforce which only get a real opportunity if the managers overseeing these roles are really into mentoring and properly addressing it. It is why it isn’t uncommon for graduates to have skills that don’t match markets’ demands. As for the supposedly low working hours’ week, it’s biased to only look at the legal full-time minimum hours, as it’s possible for workers to have a higher working hours’ week while still legally obliged to work overtime as well as additional overtime. And it doesn’t take productivity into account, as a French worker may work less time overall but may produce the same amount of work than a non-French.
I am French and I am happy to observe finally a view that is let’s say less negative of France’s Economy, especially coming from English speaker !!! I do agree about some points. For instance, unemployment and all social welfare. People in France take it for granted it and we barely understand how the US doesn’t have a UniversalSocial Welfare. Please note that Social Welfare system was laid starting from 1936 and further expanded after WWII. Education is a major issue. I admit that. But not for the reasons mentioned in the article. There are lots of industry oriented undergrad programs. The major issue (and the current governement is working on that) is that for Universities, until so far, there were no barriers and no selection: meaning that many students would find themselves in a deadend with unemployment after graduation. Think of psychology, Arts and all humanities. The Unis train too many people that will end unemployed. The government has been trying to implement some changes. But French people has this kind of visceral reaction against any change by going to strikes. Final point: I do agree that firing someone in France is quite complicated. Even though there were some laws adopted and things are changing. But it still costs a lot to fire someone. Think of 6 months salary more or less… In any case, good work, I like your work and your clear thoughts ! Keep on buddy !
google Free suggestion for article: I know you probably wont list every country with this series, but maybe if you add the year you’re reviewing the country it could help with content creation for the future. Lets say in a few years revisit the country of France again and see how its changed and progressed; yet still want to add it to the “list” you could label it as “France 23′ “.
Nice article with lovely footage but what is perhaps not explained, is the economic model of France with a heavy participation of the Estate in various degrees. Enormous corporations like Renault are partially Estate owned, never mind key sectors like rail transport, aviations, energy (conventional and nuclear), ship building, etc. Also retains overseas territories which gives global presence and are a source of income for the central government through tourism, mining extraction.It is worth noting that France is a unitary country in which Paris has a heavy hand on planning and decision making, quite the opposite of Germany and its Federal Landers.
As a french person born from an english mother. One of the reasons I feel french people dont value getting experience is because we have some of the longest school days (Uni included) and there for working goes against studies more than you could imagine so when you stop studying you are already wasy 20+ ( because we are highly educated) but with 0 experience and noone in your social groupe with experience either.
I think I could answer why France lags in productivity in comparison to Germany and the Scandinavian country, and it is due to Calvinism or being Protestants, where hard work is ingrained in their culture. France historically has been Roman Catholic which emphasises more on avoidance of wealth accumulation. There is also a split in intellectual thinking which is a huge part of 20th century Western Philosophy, where the UK and USA focused on Analytical thinking, Science and Math, Versus Continental Europe, Predominated by France, which focused on Continental Philosophy, e.g Meaning of life and culture. So basically the results in economy is due to: 1) Historical Belief started by Religion, Protestantism vs Roman Catholicism (16th-19th century) 2) Split in Western Philosophy, Analytic Philosophy vs Continental Philosophy (19th century until today) These two combined makes up the greater culture of the 21st Century. This also influences how the Educational System works.
Kudos for the article! Still a great work of economic vulgarization! Yet, as a French I have a few points to rise here. Don’t take it as a criticism or a classical angered french rant against french bashing, though. 😉 All the informations in the article are absolutely true, to my knowledge, but, whether it’s because it’s a short introduction course or because it’s falling into a simplification bias, it fails at giving a few nuances, especially about employement conditions. France has a 35h work week on paper, yet it’s limited to big companies. Considering the vast advantage of staying small, primarily because of taxes, though, a more and more important part of the economic activity is resting on small enterprises which also have less restraints than the bigger ones on worker rights, including longer and/or more flexible work weeks and the right not to include a representative organ for its employees nor a dedicated office for social questions. Most of social and legal questions are talked about face to face and workers usually don’t know the massive work of law that’s protecting them, thus being paradoxically handicaped by its complexity. Usually with wits and a lot of intimidation, a boss can retain his ground and even ain some out of a protest. Also, there is a 2 to 3 months period now when you can fire an employee without reason or compensation and with a shortened notice. It’s usually bad for both companies and workers, for companies may fire stuggling but amazing all-green employees too fast because of this deadline and it’s usually a system used by seasonal industries to take a lot of people and to fire them at the end of its hot period.
Would you consider doing a article on the possibility of, and hindrances for/consequences of reducing work hours per week dramatically on a national level? Some estimates say people spend about 13 years of their life at work, many people dream of spending more time enjoying their lives while they can, but in a world where the average worker spend 40 hours at work every week there doesn’t seem to be room for a more relaxed lifestyle for citizens on average. I love your articles by the way.
I’m late to the comments, but as an American working for an American association in France, engaged to a French gal, I believe the biggest difference between the U.S. and France, besides France being more socialist (for now), is workers’ rights. In the U.S. the customer is always right, and in France the worker is always right. I’m generalizing, but as you showed in your article, the Revolution is still going on in some ways to this day and the government uses bureaucracy to keep it at bay. I like certain parts of the French system, though the flaws are quite evident but difficult to address when so heavily guarded. Unfortunately that’s also the same for different issues in my country.
“French people have it easy” – I beg to differ. While you have great citizen and worker rights, French people do pay high taxes taken directly from their salary. Also companies do request that you have some prior experience in the field or any other advantage (foreign language, practical skills et cetera), which for a young graduate is not so easy to acquire. You can go on an intership/stage but those are payed between 480 to 800 EUR per month, depending on the company and city. That is far bellow the minimum working wage and you will struggle to make ends meet with just an intership. From my experience living as a foreigner in France, there are a lot of people working in the gray zone – they pay little to no taxes while doing a lot of the unskilled labour around the country. Also with Romania and Bulgaria coming in the EU more than 10 years ago, an influx of cheap, skilled labour has been available to french entrepreneurs. It is mostly in the construction and maintenance sectors, but in essence means less taxes paid due to lower wages.
The reason why enterprises in France can not hire high skilled and experienced workers is the lack of public investment in education plus the unexisting willing to make the students work hard and smart, we can also add the pointless hours hours and hours of study that give valueless degree. For the experience, the problem is the too strict social norms in work. Indeed you can hire whoever you want, the way you want plus, employee abuse of their right to get less responsbilities so, why would you hire a minimum wage worker without any skill and willing ?
I am a brit living in Paris. I enjoyed the article however I am suprised about your comments regarding french universities failing to properly teach “practical skills”. While it is true that the “universités” focus more on research than practical diplomas, France boasts specialist schools (“grandes écoles”) such as the engineering schools Centrale and École Polytechnique that rival top universities like MIT or Imperial College. It seems one of the problems France has is more keeping these graduates from chasing opportunities abroad rather than not being able to teach them practical skills. Regarding unemployment, one of the problems that might be overlooked in this article is the disparity between different regions in France. Most of the employment offers are found in Paris and some regions for example the north of France have to contend with high levels of unemployment due to a decaying manufacturing industry
Good vidéo, there were quite a few errors tho, 1. France is in many ways immune to small economic downfalls, this is because * It’s luxury industry is 💯 immune to economic downfalls, as we saw in 2008 (you said the opposite) * It’s exports in defence material which does not disappear (3rd in the world) * It’s pharmaceutical industry and healthcare industry * It’s tightly government controlled economy (which can also bite back if bady managed) * Tourism catered for the rich ( this does take a hit when the tourist believe that it is unsafe to travel but not as much due to economic downturns than other countries) 2. The unemployment claims and welfare claims are not really accurate * It would be a wrong assumption to say that a welfare state induces complacency in its citizens * It is right to say that a bureaucratic government does induce complacency (this is very true for France 3. It is interesting to look at GDP per capita but this needs to be understood with a way of measuring inequality. The GDP per capita of France is lower than that of the us but the average Frenchmen is richer. Inequality is therefore key to actually understanding GDP per capita It was a good article, and I found it very interesting 😉 but I would say that France is more auto sufficient (it really isn’t but is more) than many other countries the likes of the UK or Germany that are more entangled with the global economy.
Well maybe the unemployment rate is a result of culture. We swedes are afterall more likely to follow authority and I’d think we’re also more reluctant to break social norms (which I have to emphasize isn’t the same as tradition). So that predisposes us to seek employment, as I don’t believe any authority would recommend not working (except unions)
I guess all those economists forgot to look at the big difference in the labour markets in the Nordic countries and France, like you said, it’s not easy to fire people in France, whereas it’s quite easy to do in the nordic countries, minimising the risk for a company, add to that a culture of “learning for life” where personal growth is a part of the worklife, so people aren’t going to just secure themselves a well paying job and then just stick to that until retirement, these 2 things creates a helluva lot more dynamic labourmarket. Nordic countries see competition between both workers for jobs and companies, for workers, France doesn’t.
The legend presented about the impossibility of firing of worker is factually incorrect, and a legend. When you hire someone you have up to 4 months where the employee can leave at will, and can be fired at will, as a tryout period. If you can’t assess the skills and general attitude of your new hire in 4 months, what are you doing hiring someone? On top of that, if this is a new job, maybe a new service or new avenue for your company, with risks and uncertainty, you can hire for a fixed duration, up to 2 years. At the end of the contract, either the job doesn’t exist anymore, or the employee is hired full time (I’m simplifying, the contract can be renewed under conditions and things like that). And of course, people can be fired for majors things like gross incompetence, pretty much like anywhere else. But you need to show cause. Both seems very reasonable, and certainly goes against the myth you are spreading. What France doesn’t allow, in theory, is firing at will. You can’t just fire someone because you feel like it. Which a lot of corporate owners do not like, obviously, but is also pretty reasonable: a job is the life of a person, maybe a family, you can’t just change people like you change your socks.
hi, Frenchman here who spent over 40 years eating baguettes^^. To answer the question about the work market. In a total empirical way i feel like it is impossible to talk about this matter here. Or better said: it is impossible to talk about it and keep politics away. No matter what you are explaining the average “Jean-Claude” will interpret that as either a”left wing idea” or a “right wing idea” and if they judge it from the opposite side they will fight your work market analysis. Even if you make your best to keep it as economics as you can, they will see it as politics anyway. I believe this is the cause of the work market situation. And that apply to all sort of different topics. Again, in my own empirical experience.
As a frenchman, I would say this article is not bullshitting but a bit cliché : we protest very often but most protests achieve/change nothing. Right now the US seem much less stable.. But this look more like rioting than revolution out there… Many Frenchmen who do protest own their house, have good stable lifestyle and are somewhat conservative as a result. Also regarding unemployment, our labor participation rate is comparable or higher than the US. We have higher unemployment figures than US or UK because it PAYS to be jobless. The “dole” (Pole Emploi) is quite generous while Britons/Americans get next to nothing. So that inflate the figures pretty much obviously 🙂
I moved to France almost 2 years ago and I do believe they are way too strict about the worker’s rights and interests. But I’m studying economics and will probably take a master on computer science. Personally, I don’t agree with your comment on France’s education quality on practical skills, I think what drives that conclusion is how hard it is to hire those people in the first place (I could be wrong because I’m just giving my opinion). These guys actually have a pretty impressive education system! Anyways great article 👌
The unemployment thing is very well known in France. The companies want to hire an engineer with education and preferably experience, and the guy who can’t find a job is a first/second/third generation immigrant from middle-east or africa who dropped out of high school, and might even have a criminal record.
You did a mistake, you illustrated the French Revolution with the painting by De Lacroix “La liberté guidant le peuple”, but this painting represents the three glorious, which are revolutionary days of 1830. We know because on the painting there is a worker and this social class did not yet exist, it appeared much later, after the fall of Napoleon
When you stated how france was a good indicator of global prosperity and economic health since it was involved in so many industries and is tied to much of the world, it reminded me of frogs which are better a great indicator of environmental health since they are involved in so many ecosystems since they live both as tadpoles in ponds and as a frogs on land. I then remembered it might not be a nice comparison since frogs is generally a derogatory term for the french, though it is very ironic and a bit funny
Sorry to say, but this article is plenty of topics about France. To name just some of them: France’s output per hour is one of the highest in the world, effective working week is in fact larger than any country from central or norther Euros, graduated from french grand écoles have an incredibly good education and many of them run companies worldwide, etc.
I’m wondering if you’re considering adding all countries already done on this website to the leaderboard? I really like this idea and having the countries you have already done added would be much more exciting ( a separate article adding them all perhaps with links to previous countries articles below?)
i don’t mean to make a silly comment but in this article unemployment is kind of treated as an inherent bad. Is this just how EE views unemployment or is it a cause of problems in and of itself that EE just didn’t have time go into/assumed the viewer already knew? Even with its high unemployment rate, France still seems to be doing fairly well economically and, as discussed in the article, the french people apparently don’t see their own unemployment as a problem for themselves. Given this, I’m curious as to why EE describes it as a problem and I’d be happy if someone could explain it to me. (obviously this relates specifically to France. In different countries with different economies, ie ones with much weaker social welfare, i can see how unemployment could cause trouble)
On a side note, saying France’s unemployment rate is high compared to the US is a bit dangerous in my opinion. First, there is not a single country that counts unemployed people the same as another country. Second, knowing the labour law is very strict in France and workers have a lot of work, it is probably still better than the US, where one does not necessarily get insurance with a job, has a very low-paying or insecure job (and still gets deemed as being employed) etc…
The bill of rights were not an afterthought just because they were adopted after making of the constitution… it were points laid out that needed to be agreed upon the member colonies to be made into states. But you gotta remember there was a little war going on at the moment they signed the declaration of independence.
Examine the Economy of Australia. With some historical emphasis of the second half of the nineteenth century; the discovery of gold in the 1850s must have had a large economic impact. For example, it is not widely known, that in 1914, Australia’s Navy was the 5th most powerful in the Western Pacific. For a country of 4 million at the time. Gold pays for ships.
As a French people myself, this article is both so painful and so close to the reality. Entrepreneurship in France is a huuuge pain, with so much paperwork to do that the typical “artisan” will spend half of his time doing queries, invoices, declaring profits, etc. Taxes are also verh high, as a company will see half of its profit go to the governement, then have to pay their workers the double of their actual salary because half of it go to the governement, and then there is income taxes and value added taxes on top of it. On the other side people are so attached to their rights and leasures that companies have trouble fiding workers. The education system put so much value in intellectual work that practical degrees are seen as trash formation for dumb people, so companies are unable to find skilled technicians
Hi, I have an idea for the question you had asked .. it goes like this .. what is the difference between france, norway and sweeden .. I feel the answer lies in the history more .. that is france is a major colonial power .. whereas the other 2 are not … .this means france gives out a lot of citizenship to ppl who are generational descendents or even dual citizens of it colonial location and france .. these ppl are also eligable for social benefit if they are living in france … Usually this works in the following way … the person “A” lives in say Pondicherry which is a union territory in india and a former french colony .. lets say this person has dual citizenship .. They will spend 6 months in India and 6 months in france .. to maintain this dual citizenship .. When they go to france .. they will live on the social security .. in fact i have heard that if u have a pet u can even increase the social security money you will be getting .. either way . .. they live on social security .. save up enough money (yes, they can easily if they adopt frugal living habits) .. then when they go back to their developing country/ex-colony .. they live a lavish life with what they saved up in france from social security… this is acutally offered and is done by a large number of ppl from their ex-colonies .. What i am saying is that maybe the numbers are nearly the same in France/Sweeden/Norway .. it may just be that the french numbers look inflated because of their generous and understanding point of view of those they left behind during the age of colonialism(to put it nicely).
I would be interested in seeing the unemployment rate before the migrant crisis. That in itself might give you an answer as to why so many people arent/ won’t work, and why there’s a shortage of skilled workers among the population… should also add that it’s quite sad to watch this beautiful footage. I travel to Paris quite frequently and besides a few nice areas, parts of it aren’t much different than a third world slum
Ah yes, another article about that European country called Paris. Can’t wait to see that. Jokes asides, one of the complex reasons which triggered the French Revolution was the dept and thus the high taxes right after the Seven Years War (which was a devastation for France) and then after the intervention in America. I find it surprising that you didn’t mention that, there is a real economical perspective behind all those.
I’m an American living in Spain. I see a lack of motivation here as well. Sometimes proprietors just decide not to open. When they are open, they will decide weather or not the customer is worth serving and often even wait staff will wait until more people show up then come out. It’s extremely normal to have to chase down anyone selling anything. It’s almost as if they believe there lives won’t change one way or the other? 🤷🏻♂️
At the end of the year, can you rank all the economies you did before 2020 like Monaco, Sweden, the USA, China, the UK any any others I might’ve missed? Appreciate a little announcement and hype up for the end of the year to end with a fun article after this dreadful year. Worst year since 2016 lol. Thanks!
I’m french and I agree that there is some problem with our social system, some people don’t feel the need to work so we have a gap between what businesses need and what people are willing to do. I beleive in a social system that protect and provides a minimum for dignity, but something is wrong and biased in the french one. I hope they tackle the issue very soon
France’s issues can be summed up in a few points : Taxes : We tax people and businesses way too much which penalizes everyone in the long term Bureaucracy : we have way too much administrative state workers, cross-state comparisons in the health sector are quite alarming Education : We do not teach enough science and economics during the early school years, should someone not take the economic path in middle school, he may only have had 1 year of economic courses, 1 year composed of 2 hours per week, not to mention that half of the course is about economics and the other is about sociology and that course is optional. So yeah, that’s quite an issue. The lack of economic knowledge throughout the French population is responsible for the hatred of the people towards money, rich people and the rather poor political offer in terms of proper economic policies throughout the majority of the political candidates’ programmes. We vote for what we are at the end of the day. Education could solve our issues in the long run.
The explanation of the Révolution is a cartoon version of history. Rousseau is the key intellectually and ressentiment is the key psychologically. Politically the Révolution strengthened and rationalised the centuries old move towards a centralised authoritarian state. For the men who made the Révolution the state was an opportunity. It was quite otherwise across the Atlantic. Both events are described as revolutions but they have little in common, as the subsequent history of the 2 countries demonstrates.
I suscribed yesterday, and you post about my country today, what a treat! I’l probably go on a long winded rant about the french educational system later, but for now i just want to say that you were on point when you said that that the wellfare system is keeping hostage its beneficiaries, as even getting a part time job would meen loosing wellfare (also french wellfare is not much in my opinion, barely keeping with the cost of living and its conditions of acces invasive at best, insulting at its worst)
If you go by total receipts, it’s not correct to say that France has the largest tourism industry, the largest would be the USA. Sure, USA only has about 90% of the total number of tourists per year from the more recent statistics I saw (the figures I saw were for 2017), but the USA also had more than triple the total receipts in the same period. Source for rankings by receipts: indexmundi.com/facts/indicators/ST.INT.RCPT.CD/rankings
Hello, European here… France is often being given as an example how not to do it 😀 GDP growth rate oscillating between mediocre and low (mere 3% would be unbelievably good in case of france), unemployment between 8% and 9%, youth unemployment about 20%… not because of corona, it is same year after year after year. Some trends should not be followed.
I don‘t agree with your analysis on import/export balances and their sustainability. It assumes there are no exogenous shocks in the domestic sector that lead to growth- when in fact a number of them can happen, and are enabled by relieving consumer budgets with the competitive pressure of imports on prices. The US has been running trade deficits that look really big on paper- but the trade deficit has steadily been going down as a percentage of GDP in the US for more than a decade and a half, and is significantly less than what it was in the mid-2000s.
As for the employment problems. Welfare becomes a trap and they need UBI and to encourage entrepeneurship. Additionaly the big companies are just making noise they could hire people and train them for the specialised roles they need to fill but they don’t want to. It is simply cheaper to go without or insist on the requirement to hire from abroad.
I am thinking ( i am french ) the main problem is education. Just look at this : I am a technician, skilled worker in industrie like petroluem or stell plant. I have always find a job. I can switc job easy if I want, there’s a lot of demand. My little brother, have failed to continue the school, for multiple reason, he is responsible for some part of it but the education jave indeed a part of responsibility. He is fughting hard for find any job, what he can get is actually half time job on restaurant or full time job in warehouse for unload and load truck, or at amazon… Theyre are really to many to leave school without any particular skills and this is a huge issue for everyone. But people always like politician say than this is because of the social care system. But actually none of them want to stay at home doing nothing of there one life…