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(Sept. 1) -- Quick, which is the more efficient model for labor organization: European-style socialism or American capitalism? The answer may surprise you, according to Thomas Geoghan, an American labor lawyer and author of the new book "Were You Born on the Wrong Continent? How the European Model Can Help You Get a Life."
First, some numbers: American workers are on the job for 1,804 hours a year, compared with 1,436 hours for Germany, Europe's most vibrant economy. That's the "equivalent of nine extra 40-hour workweeks per year," observes Salon contributor Alex Jung, in his conversation with Geoghan for the Barnes and Noble Review. Yet the productivity levels of both countries remain roughly equivalent, Geoghan points out.
"Maybe the fact that they're taking time off has something to do with that," Geoghan says. And while the United States' gross domestic product may be higher, he calls that a deceptive measurement.
"You can pull out these GDP per-capita statistics and say that people in Mississippi are vastly wealthier than people in Frankfurt and Hamburg," he says. "That can't be true. ... We don't have any way of valuing what these European public goods are really worth. You know, it's 50,000 dollars for tuition at NYU, and it's zero at Humboldt University in Berlin. So NYU adds catastrophic amounts of GDP per capita, and Humboldt adds nothing."
More broadly, European-style socialism is seen as a villainous creation by many in America today, but Geoghan argues that by most measures, it's actually worth aspiring to.
Sure, taxes may be higher, but there are mandatory six-week vacations, free education and health care, plus a powerful labor force that keeps work hours in check. In the 1960s, Americans had more leisure time than the Japanese, but since then, as the power of unions eroded, work hours have steadily gone up.
"So people feel like lab rats: 'If I work an extra 10 minutes over the person in the cubicle next to me, then I'm less likely to get laid off,' " Geoghan says. "It's a very rational response."
Read more at Barnes and Noble Review (a partnership with Salon.com)
Americans Work an 'Extra' 9 Weeks a Year
Sep 1, 2010 – 8:49 AM
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