A few weeks before the presentation of the pension bill, Hippolyte d’Albis, professor at the Paris School of Economics, had thrown a stone into the pond. In a daily column THE Echoes soberly titled “France, the country where we work the least“, this eminent specialist in demographic questions departed from the usual statistics on employment to reveal an explosive indicator: the number of hours worked, not per worker, but per inhabitant.
The conclusion was clear: compared to its resident population, France only shows 610 hours worked per year on the meter. Fewer than Italy (670) and Denmark (684). Much less than Germany or Spain (just over 700 hours). Light years from Portugal, Sweden or the United Kingdom, where people work between 800 and 900 hours a year.
By leaving comparisons on the unemployment rate or the activity rate, often biased by different national legislations, this approach broadens the focus and shows work for what it really is: the essential fuel of a model of society. Both infants and retirees in France benefit from a myriad of public services financed by levies on assets. However, worries Hippolyte d’Albis, “if we make the collective choice to continue to work less, we must not hope to retain all the advantages that we derive from the work of others”. Health is not free. Neither does school. Those who are moved by the slightest hitch to our generous and envied protection system are – often – the same ones who refuse to work more. And those who promote the “right to laziness” or retirement at 60 have constantly demanded an increase in the allowances which the country is collecting. This French evil, which sees work as the problem rather than the solution, has a name: schizophrenia. It gets worse. At the risk of ultimately dislocating our social contract.