alright, must mean they're rich now?alright, must mean they're rich now?
uh.... NO:
US work levels, which peaked in 2000 at more than 1,400 annual hours per person, have been on a downward trend over the past two decades, found Serdar Birinci, senior economic policy adviser at the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis, and co-authors. Meanwhile, the UK average picked up between 2000 and 2020. Average annual hours worked in both countries is now about 1,330.
There must be some adjustment/accounting/age cut-off here I'm not aware of, since these numbers are different (#1476033)
Dude provides three reasons
- Sector mix, British work now easier to do ("disutility of work... fallen") — which checks out: if it's now easier/less disutility to achieve the same work, and thus bring home earnings, I do more of it
- Women: but don't say so out loud:
Changes in social views and cultural norms about who ought to work and by how much have made it possible for some groups to enter the labour force, the researchers say, which raised overall average hours worked. Moreover, a rise in less strenuous occupational options and a proliferation of superior home production technologies, such as dishwashers, made the jobs market more accessible.
- U.S. hours dropping: bc they're overwhelmingly on opioids or homeless...? NOPE: "the expansion of the US welfare state"
"Welfare provided to the non-employed, especially Medicaid, raised the opportunity cost of work. And this caused lots of people to pack up and leave employment altogether, lowering the average.""Welfare provided to the non-employed, especially Medicaid, raised the opportunity cost of work. And this caused lots of people to pack up and leave employment altogether, lowering the average."
Yes, British and American adults are now working as many hours per person. But UK labour hours today are much less productive [...] Now US labour hours are much more productive, with a transatlantic differential that has widened to a gulf. The average US labour hour in 2023 was worth 23 per cent more than in Britain.
LOL at Brits' Not Having a CLUE!LOL at Brits' Not Having a CLUE!
What is less well-known among Britons is how good Americans today have it. According to recent Institute of Economic Affairs-Freshwater Strategy polling, UK voters think that if the country was a US state it would be the seventh-wealthiest on a GDP per-capita basis. The truth, in fact, is that it would rank 51st.
I don't think most Americans understand how poor Europeans are on average, too. It's like Mississippi, but speaking French or German.
Declinism is real.
archive: https://archive.md/cX0Qf
Note that American labor hours stopped trending down after the GFC, according to that chart.
hm, interesting... what do you make of that?
You'd think I'd know the answer, but my guess is that women in dual-income households are increasing their hours worked.
There's also the decline in college enrollments that started about 10 years ago. Presumably some of those people are choosing to work instead.
Imagine being poorer than Mississippi
That's hard to do. I've been to Mississippi recently and it's inconceivable to me that Europe is significantly poorer than that (as is Canada).
eeeh, so cruel, bro