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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.
The countryside isn't empty and poor 😂 have you ever been to Lyon, Strasbourg, Bordeaux, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, Aix en Provence etc.. or even the little cities with just rich people living in like Cannes, Saint Tropez, Deauville, La grande motte etc.. Paris is richer it is true but the other cities are not poor. Even a lot of parisians are leaving Paris because it is too expensive, crowded and stressfull to go in cities like Bordeaux or Nantes.
@DBR Liamg oh ok i see yes its true paris is the sixth city in the world with the highest Gdp and no other french city is in the top 100 so there is a real difference i though he was saying that everybody live in paris and all the people who dont were poor
@@gamecubekingdevon3 oui mais plus de 80% de la population française vit dans les villes ou les banlieues donc ces villes représentent une bonne partie de la qualité de vie des français
@@jujululu5673 une portion non négligeable vit également dans des plus petites villes (moins de 100 000 habitants) et cela n'empêche pas que la majorité de la surface territoriale reste sous-financée (au profit de quelques métropoles et d'une mégalopole bien mieux financées). les chiffres globaux sont donc a prendre avec des pincettes, car ils ne montrent qu'une moyenne au sein d'un ensemble bien hétérogène. (par exemple, si tu observes l'IDF et le limousin, t'a limite l'impression de voir deux pays séparés et pas des membres du même pays tellement les deux n'ont rien a voir)
would anyone like to talk about this stuff? i'd love to exchange opinions with another person. Please if it was so, respond to this comment, thank you!
I am French and I approve this message. One thing, though : people can get fired, you just need an actual reason that is provable, like "not doing their job properly". It happens all the time.
@@unplu6 I can't speak for all of us but it's certainly true of pretty much everyone I know. It's possible for French people to be satisfied with their lives... although we will always complain to the government because we must keep them on their toes. And because it's fun.
@@TheNefastor alors oui mais quand t'es dans une grosse boite et que tu veux virer quelqu'un avec 20 ans d'ancieneté tu vas voir la note est salé/ Si tu vires des gens qui ont 2 ou 3 ans ca va tranquille.
@@StoutProper no, it's only a far better country to live, and don't forget most cool things people label as french are actually Belgian, starting with french fries
I think that's the best way to bring governments to pay more attention to the public's affairs. Since voting isn't working anywhere in the several developing economies of the world and even some developed economies.
@@utkarshg.bharti9714 Given that the participation in voting is about 60% in developed countries. How can governments listen to what people want through voting?
Thank you for this video 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...
@@alessandropaleologo1534 sure but not a very different problem from many countries of Western europe. Actually we have two kinds of inequalities : impoverished suburbs around main cities and small/mid sized cities that gravitate around the large ones (which are economically much more dynamic).
Spot on about the inequalities in the regions, as an ex-pat Brit living in one of the poorest departments (86 Vienne, not in the north east) the level of poverty particularly amongst the old has been shocking. The employment rules have changed a bit but are still very different than the UK's higher & fire at will 'laws'. More and more people are using self employed workers (like me!) to get around the problem. Still much prefer to be poor and happy in France than stuck in the rat race in the UK.
@Boris Erdogan Ethnics slums because of colored people ? In this case we're not talking of spaniards, italian, polish, portugese, english, eastern people who came to France for the same purpose...
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 video as always, keep it up and thank you for the first place I mean even though there are only 3 countries for now ^^
I was thinking, maybe you should make a video, solely ranking all the countries you have covered, as there many that should be on the list, such as the UK, US, China, Australia, South Africa etc. Just a thought😃
My father's a doctor in a public hospital. he works 6 days a week, with an average of 10-11 hours a day. And he get on call too. Add an extra 12h It's plain madness
Tout travail mérite salaire. À lot of French people refuse to do "work-experience", where you're not paid, because life is expensive and you cant live on expérience. Maybe all citizens dont have as much available capital to invest in such situations.
@@philmerc364 Interships are spread and well accepted in France, they are a mandatory part of all trainings. The problem comes when compagnies want to hire people for free and except the state to pay for it, the state should only pay if learn new valuable skills, and not just "work" for the compagny
@@philmerc364French here, did you think about complaints ? People are very specific about what they will do and not do before they start working. Changing the post, rotating position, changing the hours are big a no. They're quick to tell you they didn't sign for this and "faire valoir ses droits" (make your rights counts) is a major topic of discussion at dinner. I mean teacher prepare you not to accept anything and say no to the boss. Your parents will look over you when you start working so as not to be naively exploited by the boss. "Remember you have the right to that, you are allowed to ask for this, he can't make you do that". You didn't start working yet, but you"re watching for traps and you'll be a hero if you stand up for your rights. Most guys, don't care about the customers, the business, they signed up very specific. They will do just that and wait to get enough seniority to become unfireable. That's their end game, once they know they can't get fired, you'll see how ethical they are. They'll only refrain from doing criminal stuff that can get them fired. At most office, they are usually groups, those who can't get fired and chill and those who want to prove themselves so has not to be laid off just before they reach seniority (lol, the bosses like to get rid of people just before they can get fired ).
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.
Hi, this was a great video 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)
Hi, I'm French and I can tell you that you are FULLY right. This is the big PB. Value of the diploma is bigger than experience or results you had. It's a silo world that kill felx employement market. => BTW All what said about "take it easy" is TOTALLY WRONG vome and leave in France and you will see reality. 35 hours is a myth. If you look at realy fact into the country you see that it"s just "bad com" => France has lost all what was supposed to be social security for about 20 years now. But you should look to other more realistic KPIs than classical Macroeconomic ones.... I"m sad to hear thos cliché....
Great video, 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
Also the fact that unemployed people can make as much (if not more) money than employed people at times... This was counterbalanced by the RSA, a government bonus given to people with low wages so they make slightly more money than unemployed people... That's France in a nutshell: Social welfare is used and abused and the solutions to fix it rarely make sense.
As a French fan, I found this video 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.
Les CPGE filtrent, les universités pas. J'ai fait les deux, c'est deux mondes différents. La ou en prépa c'est galère et tout le monde à sa chance si il bosse, l'université c'est une garderie. c'est la merde parce que les universités voient "on a pas vocation à être selective" pas comme le "On donne leur chance a tous" que ca devrait être, mais comme "Il est inscrit on lui donne son diplome dans quelques années". Un peu comme la SNCF voit "on a pas vocation à être profitable" comme .
Everywhere in the world is like that. That is why I believe that you should do everything legally possible to climb the social ladder. This will make it easier for your kids to keep climbing even higher
@@davidmartineztorres8731 Or get rid of selection universities altogether and invest in the quality of the whole education system. In countries like the Netherlands and Belgium, as long as you have obtained a university degree, it does not matter where it is from because the government safeguards all education institutions to be proportionally funded and meet the same high standards. It's the reason you don't have an equivalent of Oxford or Havard or the French grand écoles in Germany or the Benelux countries. But it is better for the population as a whole.
But then plot twist! Avant la lettre Communist dictator takes power! And then plot twist! Communist dictator just gives up and get executed, and bourgeois take power again! And then plot twist! Military coup! And then plot twist! The general who was just supposed to be hired muscle hijack the coup! And then plot twist! He actually does more to push the ideals of the original Revolution than all the previous regimes combined! And then plot twist! Well, you get the idea by now...
@@won1853 Well you will probably have a better experience than most until this season, since instead of looking at other tourists you will actually get to see the sights.
Croatia has similar systemic problems as France but without any of the advantages. Inflexible labor system - check, complicated bureaucracy - check, huge taxes - check, general mentality of viewing private business as an enemy rather than a key component of society - check. Add a massive brain drain and an aging population. Croatia is a country in very, very deep... problems.
This video 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.
As a French, yes our administration and paper work is a nightmare. Opening a business certainly is. That French myth certainly is true. On top of that, there's a lot of approximations. So even if you have the money to hire a lawyer to do it for you, it's still a long nightmare. One thing many people miss about France, is that we are the champions of having lots of law, but very little enforcement, and some degree of wrong enforcement. Including in government services and general administration.
@@anonanon334 You probably can't answer this question but out of curiosity if you can, how does the UK itself compare to those two countries respectively?
Hey! Loved the video :) 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!
I lived 20 years in France and I think you are spot on, the sheer amount of red tape and inflexible employment policies is strangling innovation and entrepreneurship in France. Steps have been taken to try and change this but their is significant resistance to change 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:(
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
@@Weeee439 Actually highest public spending in the World. 57% of the GDP is spent by the public sector every year. Which is more than Scandinavian country despite the fact that France is only half as rich.
@@barnaby4232 Yes it is, just check the GDP per capita of different countries. Norway : $80000 Denmark : $60000 Sweden : $50000 Finland : $50000 France : $40000 All Scandinavian countries are 25% to 100% richer than France. (And these are 2019 numbers, 2020 numbers will most show an even wider gap thanks to strict lockdowns applied in France)
@@karisvenner3892 exactly so what you said was objectively wrong plus those numbers aren't even accurate, how does 25 percent more rich equate to twice as rich?
Great video. Since this video focused on the impact of tourism on France, I feel like it would be really interesting if you made a video on Hawaii. I'm from Hawaii myself and COVID-19 has absolutely killed the tourism industry here.
Lol what economy of Portugal? It has not its place in Western Europe compared to those countries it is a underdeveloped poor and dirty country with more lazy people..... Portugal should be compared to Eastern European countries..... in fact Poland and Czech Republic are also doing better
@@henrichvonstaufenberg4841 Czechia is pretty decent as a country you know. I haven't been to Portugal but poverty isn't exactly a central/Eastern European forte, given the thousands of homeless people in the United States, UK, and urban centres of large, developed western European countries.
@@capecodcorporate then you don’t know what culture means, beauty is different for everyone and lol only met weird sketch people in Portugal and a lot of bad intentioned people in Germany none of these..... and that’s because Portugal is a poor country so many people want to trick you..... even managers at 5 stars hotels are incompetent and just want your money nothing compared to the curtesy of German hotels
This video 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.
That being said, taxes are the issue. The french system is overindulging particularly to low qualification people. There is a bias towards relaxing, but french education system and culture value education, science and hard work. People compete fiercely for a place into a Grande Ecole, despite the salary gap between an Engineer and a bartender not being as pronounced as it is in the US. Maybe one way to see it is that we do not need as much money to entice us to invest our lives and give our hard work to become someone productive. Somewhere else, you need to be paid 5 to 6X more to be persuaded to become an engineer rather than not studying or studying an "easier" career.
Bien dit :) I'll add Bureaucracy was expanded by the government to create more jobs for some unemployed. But it is a bottleneck in business. For example changing a headquarter address or the name of a company (SAS) needs to write to 3 lawyers and cost a few 1000 EUR.
I teach in French universities (Korean studies). I think that we indeed are really good in social sciences, but the way we design our universities’ curricula is sometimes too oblivious of the fact that most students are not planning to become theoretical researchers. It does lack a bit of pragmatism and is too disconnected from the business world in my mind. There’s definitely room for improvement I would think.
@@damienpeladan481 I agree. In my experience, pragmatism is the only area where I feel that studies in the US are superior to studies in France. Perhaps that is the most important area. The French education system can do better, but more importantly, it should adapt faster to an ever-changing world.
@@damienpeladan481 I think this is a problem in most old countries with old educationitional institutions. I didn't go to Uni here in the UK, but based off my experience in the lower schools and my mates, it seems that is also the case there. The could also be said of old Italian universities as well. I believe it's because they're so old and icnonic, that often it's hard to change the outlook of how to change the educational communities outlook on how to teach at these Uni's. Like you're not going to tell Oxford how to teach, even though they lack pragmaticism. Although I think the UK did a good job of tackling this with the whole apprenticeship schemes and subsidsy schemes for taking on unexperinced people. From what I heard from this video is that in France, you haven't reallt adopted this, which would probably help in developing the pragamatic side of things
Just my two cents as a trained economist from France ! In the video, 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. In my opinion It results in the fact that in France If you aren't able to beat your partners in Science, you'll have to pick the other tracks that are left for you. If you're not below average intellectually, the short study path is clearly not your best bet on average. First, the wages are quite low in the vast majority of situations, which should be indeed expected from a job which doesn't require a lot of qualification, and the working conditions are generally not stellar, which should also be expected from physically demanding jobs, which obviously discourages some that are potentially interested... But the real problem that makes It very unattractive to reasonably smart people is that It's extremely difficult to grow out of this carreer because there's an oversupply of people with a tertiary degree that will as a rule be selected before you for the promotion. It's therefore, in the majority of cases, a worse carreer path for the individual in a vast majority of situations than sludging through a questionably useful degree and then stumbling upon an office job. This equilibrium is arguably worse for the country as a whole (because It definitely results in a lack of trained technical workers) but French people are fiercely individualistic and no governement will be able to change that in a lifetime. But the fact that technical studies are then out of the question because only the best students really get the chance to study the technical subjects. It pretty much leaves people with everything else, where the supply of Education is nearly as high as the demand. Subjects like Psychology, Law, Applied Economics (theoritical Economics is quite hard to get into in France unless you're a trained engineer)... Of course, devil hides in details and schools like the ENS offers an extremely selective and prestigious cursus for the very best in less technical subject matters and those will become world class professors in their own sphere of expertise like late Nobel Prize Esther Duflo, but they're an exception rather than the rule and they're pretty much only there for scholarly purpose and too small to offer a realistic alternative path to good carreers. But It's then not really a surprise that there's an oversupply of people that are intellectually minded and able to carry an interesting conversation till 5 AM like a typical cliché of a French person does and a lack of skilled technical worker that are better at their job than at questioning the nature of Labor in modern economies. Therefore, what France lacks the most in comparison to its more successful European partners is a category between the Elite that is extremely competent, maybe the most scholarly excellent in the world, and the common folks that can't really innovate because they don't possess the ability to because of their lack of training in the relevant skills. It's not really a random occurrence to me that those people are indeed the insanely productive backbone of every of the most successful European countries like Switzerland, Germany or Sweden. Those are the real treasures of modern developed economies. Therefore, I think France's situation pretty much shows better than any other developed countries the danger of striving for having the very best while neglecting to uplift the average guy. Maybe It's time to accept this and to find a path to solve the serious problem of France's lack of skilled workers... For me, It inevitably starts by stopping to care as much about the excellency of the cream of the crop that will thrive in every system anyway and temperate the feel-good policies that only really function under the assumption that every kind of work is equal... And to simply start to care about the people that are not the very best but still would be completely able to do well in the highly complex modern economy If they were given the tools to do so. It's things that would show their effects in the long term however ... Never too late I guess, but given France's relatively bleak perspectives in the near future, It's time to seriously think about It to avoid the less enviable situation of our Southern cousins. One short term solution that could however be used in the meanwhile would be to tap into this supply of worker by allowing people that weren't trained for their technical jobs to be able to do so while working. It would require some concession on the worker's side (you can't remunerate very well a person that is not operational for the job, obviously) but I feel like an even steeper obstacle mentality-wise lies in the employers. Indeed, I feel like French recruiters are not confident enough in their recruits ability to improve with work experience and will sometimes unconsciously think that If you weren't trained for It in your tertiary education specifically then It's prefferrable to wait for another candidate, potentially leaving behind someone that was honestly competent enough to learn this skill and would have costed you less in the long run (Ce qui est rare est cher). PS : I feel like you overrate the value of the "Made in France" brand value somewhat. It's definitely true for all the things that are typically associated with France like wines or luxury goods ... But far less so for other products like car manufacturing or Aeronautics which are nonetheless pivotal to the French economy... Just look at the popular image of Peugeot in the UK as an example. Few people also seem to know that the de facto headquarter of Airbus is in France, and that France is therefore one of the World leader in this sector. Can definitely agree that being a world leader in Aeronautics isn't really something extremely valuable currently, though...
So what you are saying is that France should do what the US realized not long ago. That people can learn how to do a job by doing that job not in school. And the smartest person or most educated isn’t always the best for the job. My English professor from France reminds me very much of this elitism. She criticizes American constantly but doesn’t have any ideas on a solution to the problem. As an Economics major and lover of the discipline I have finally started to point out the problem with her views. It hasn’t made me very popular with her but the class has definitely thanked me.
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.
yeah, reminds me of shitons of studends choosing psycology, human sciences, literature, hystory, international relationships, political sciences but a very small amount of then can actualy find a job related to their studies... that's why some years after ending high school i choose to study beverage technician, 100% real world teaching for beign a skilled worker in production and commerce about beverages (wine excluded)
would anyone like to talk about this stuff? i'd love to exchange opinions with another person. Please if it was so, respond to this comment, thank you!
Thanks for being the most informative channel to date. Economy has always been an area where I lacked and your videos provide the perfect ground to get into it amd understand our current world better.
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.
Another issue is that practical skills learning has been seen as a way to discharge failing students from classical system, as well as the unprepared orientation of students before they go to university and other higher level studies. It's also quite difficult for workers to adapt their skills to the market and re-learn, it's getting better but there isn't as much investment as it should be.
I think the German education system has managed to buff its industry alot by having two higher education systems besides Uni that focus on practical skills and have a good acceptance in society while overall larbour rights are pretty similar. We have other problems though the french dont have in this magnitude.
@@Chocolouf I absolutely agree about th stigma around practical skills, not specifically in France (as I am not French and don't know), but in my country I have found the stigma around practical trades has been a contributor to university dropouts who feel disillusioned because they were never learning something they enjoyed and felt good at to begin with. I don't want to say "overeducation" because I don't believe higher education should be exclusively for having a job in that field, but certainly an inappropriate blanket push towards white collar fields, where a more nuanced approach much leave people more satisfied with their occupation.
@@meneither3834 I don't know France's culture well enough to know what the French people want most from their economic system. I have my preferred brand of communism, and Frances history suggests they might be keen on it too but maybe times change. There are also systems like Parecon, examples of economies which are something entirely new.
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.
Simple solution: don't rack any dividends. Capital appreciation has been so underrated over the past 10 years, yet it is the hallmark of "value" in investment. For this reason, I'm not surprised French legislation goes against the US model. You always need an alternative to the status quo. All is well.
American living in a French overseas territory. Great video 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 video. Flanders vs wallonia, shift in wealth, language borders, world wars, beer companies…. Would love to see it.
As an Englishman, I laugh at the sinking boat of France while the UK heads towards the iceberg, good thing I'm also Irish (and American but we don't talk about that) Also do another UK video pleeeeeèeese
umm.... so you are an irishman pretending to be an american pretending to be an englishman pretending to not be drinking tea while eating hamburgers with a side of potatoes. your passport must be a nightmare
1. Size 2. GDP Per Capita 4. Stability and Confidence (Fix me at 16:05) 4. Growth 5. Industry Found one, EE! Sorry, no time to do the spreadsheet! Love your channel! Cheers from Hawaii!
What about making a video, 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 video to make and you could shamelessly plug all your prior videos to get more sweet, sweet views. Top notch content btw.
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
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.
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 channel 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
Prestige fades, and by the way, France has a growing population, so it would need to grow to keep the standards up. If you get outgrown you'll just end up assimilated into someone else's economic sphere which happened to France after WW2. Also I wonder to what extend what you said applies to Japan.
Please consider posting the lost of sources for future videos in the descriptions, it would be very nice to do further readings on the sources of your videos
Can we please forget about the myth of the french 35 hours workweek? I'm french , work 45 hours a week and know no one in my entourage who works under 40 hours
I watched a few of your videos now and before I begin watching I always think, "I wonder if he is going to mention x?" and you always do. It gives me a lot of confidence that you know what you're talking about and try to include all the relevant facts.
Great videos, 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.
It's also rumored to have the highest productivity per person, i want to know more about that, also educated french worker export very well, especially in stem, what about that?
And there is also the great employment bottleneck. As most new workers come into the labour force both completely over qualified due to having done long studies, but at the same time being grossly under qualified as these courses for the most part don't teach any real life skills, you end up with youths being heavily unemployed and if they find a job, they quickly get taxed dry, so many simply escape the country. And these problems aren't going away anytime soon thanks to the ubiquitous power of unions
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).
@@videogamebomer He knows *EXACTLY* what he is talking about. Our education system is a joke on almost every level and only worsens all the rest (an over abundance of over qualified new workers with no real world skill whatsoever) and the fact that creating a new business is so hard (and risky considering the lack of safety net and the high taxation) only hurts the economy, we have been relying on mega corporations that relocate their factories for far too long and it's time we start to create new businesses that benefit the real, local economy instead of relying on enormous corporations with no loyalty to their country whatsoever
@@elon6131 dude the only problem with the American education system is that it is expensive we have to make sure College are affordable but those university make good studrbt
@@ahadumer418 the really expensive colleges are the only ones who actually do a good job. that's hardly a point in the US's favour, because this is true everywhere. the hallmark of a good system is that even when you don't have hundreds of thousands of dollars, you can still get good education.
This video 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% (2018), [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). - Education and Research, Yes french university are not our best assets, but they still make the best mathematicians on earth (with Princton university). The system is dual, the Grandes écoles, and the university. without going further in it judging the system only with university is a mistake. Buisness school are good, Engeenering, MedSchool and even economics. We ahve a lack of integration between The private sector and the university. But as i said University is only one of the two pillars of French Higer edu system. Reasearch isn't done in the university as much as they do in other countries, Many labs are run by the state. What is to be understood with the french education system is : it's complicated beyond reason, but miraculously working. And the country is still -2019) the 5th largest patent producer. I will not defend it because it's not worth it. But the system is bad but works. and that not uncomon in France, things are overly complicated but still work. - What about the big players, out of the top 500 corporations worldwide as measured by revenue. Franceis the 4th. with 0.462 compagny per 1M inhab (only outperformed by the Swiss and the Dutch in the top 10 countries). They lead the economy (most of them have been creation of the state like Saint-Gobin in ...1665 or EDF in 1946). They are doing buisness in many fields, allowing the economy to be diverse and drive a lots of ressources in research. While the states run labs are doing most of reasearch instead of the university (despite often been link one another with colaboratory work, Teacher are also working for Labs that are only coleaded by the university and partly by the State (seek about the CNRS). - Employment rate, Yes it is low , why ? The social choice is : better not work than having a badly paid, part time job. The poverty rate is lower in france compared with other OECD, and the productivity is higer, the countries choosed another way to devide the wealths generated within the country. that's a Political choice more than an economical anomaly. Their is some truth about the "impossible to fire a french employee" but that's greatly exagerated. If your buisness isn't doing profite, you can totaly fire employees. The buraucracy here is a nightmare for buisness and entrepreneurs, but if you are a medium or big compagny that's how they got most of their subventions, and they rarely complain about this part. - No they don't go on strike often (other europeans beat us at this game) but when they do, be sure everyone notice. The french culture is about clash and fight, so when the unions strike it means negociation are "ongoing". Strike isn't the result of failed negotiation but often a part of the negotiation. (this is ofc generalising). Their is also a reasuring trend in the Anglo-saxon world to show how franceis terrible and unstable, a sort of self reasuring, mainly in the UK. But data are clear, two countries are very much alike when it come to economical growth and GDP , GDP per capita, the inqualities beeing higer in the UK. mainly showing all the turmoil we see and hear is more about theatrical stand than real long term economical differences. In overall i'm a bit surprise you got the big picture of the country but the detailes are full of misconceptions and stereotypes. Thanks for the video, and take care, I would be pleased if you do the economy of the EU one day ;D
I think you are pointing at the limit of this format and this channel: it has to almost caricature countries' economies in order to give us the big picture in a short and understandable manner. And of course it misses key aspects but overall it's still interesting. However it should be seen more as an invitation to learn more than as an accurate synthesis. I think that a foreigner watching this video will get a good and accurate idea of what the particularities of the French economy are and how it fares compared to the rest of the world. Most of what you pointed at are details in comparison with the main aspects that make the French economy stand out.
Great series Bro, Well Explained, good Contenet! Any chance you get into the details a little more about what kind of things they import, exporet. E.G apps, clothes, Inteligence, RandD etc etc. Keep you the good work. Its appreciated !
Well I think that's not what he said. The biggest problem in France is not workers rights, it's the rigidity in the labour force. People in Sweden have just as many rights, but it's much easier to do business without a thousand restrictions and rules. Social security is one of europes strongest points, but france is a good example on how it can actually hurt the common man. People are often stuck in their job they don't like because the extreme benefits and safety it brings while finding a new job can be hard, because you are just too expensive.
@@simonestreeter1518 ça veut dire qu’on importe les pires éléments du monde et que les français de base qui ont dans l’histoire fait se pays se barrent à l’étranger. Le numéro du faux zeteticien a 2 balles qui reprend quelqu’un pour une faute de frappe c’est relou. Je continuerai pas la discussion puisque nos avis sont trop divergents et ça ne sert à rien de débattre puisque l’on est même pas en accord sur le constat de base.
@@whynotfr Bah non, vous vous trompez. Je suis d'accord, et j'ai fait la pub originale parce que la vidéo essayait de cacher le point par l'omettre. Et excusez-moi pour le malentendu, le français c'est pas mon langue maternelle. Bonne soirée.
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
Do a video on the analysing the strongest economic participants of the European union and speculate the affect of the coronavirus pandemic of the union and the Euro currency
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.
my mom works in the government in Canada and her salary is almost the same for 10 years. I think after the 2008 financial crisis, most developed countries stopped increasing salaries for government workers due to lack of economic growth
I watched all the Economics explained video, 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 watching people stay in their jobs forever who are incompetent was just too much.
Annoying aye, but I'm sure you can equally understand why I could never move back. The culture is so fascinating, the food so good and cities so nice. Always a positive and a negative
Hi there, wonderful and interesting video! I would change the title though since the argument seems to be “How the French economy serves as an Indicator of the global economy.” But the title implies that the French economy is the force that acts upon the world economy in “setting the trend.”
Thanks as always for watching :D This video was requested by the team over on Patreon. If you want to have your say on what video is produced next please consider supporting the channel.
www.patreon.com/EconomicsExplained
first
Please make a video about the economics in the islamic golden age
You should do a video qualifying the economies of the countries you already did, just to catch up on your list and have more countries to compare.
I'm French, and all you tell in this video is so relevant ! My favorite video on this channel.
Gdp per capita means nothing! Why dont you use GDP/PPP? Great video tho
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.
The countryside isn't empty and poor 😂 have you ever been to Lyon, Strasbourg, Bordeaux, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, Aix en Provence etc.. or even the little cities with just rich people living in like Cannes, Saint Tropez, Deauville, La grande motte etc.. Paris is richer it is true but the other cities are not poor. Even a lot of parisians are leaving Paris because it is too expensive, crowded and stressfull to go in cities like Bordeaux or Nantes.
@DBR Liamg oh ok i see yes its true paris is the sixth city in the world with the highest Gdp and no other french city is in the top 100 so there is a real difference i though he was saying that everybody live in paris and all the people who dont were poor
@@jujululu5673 toutes les villes que tu a citées restent des grandes villes. il parlais plutot de la campagne, qui elle, est bien sous-financée.
@@gamecubekingdevon3 oui mais plus de 80% de la population française vit dans les villes ou les banlieues donc ces villes représentent une bonne partie de la qualité de vie des français
@@jujululu5673 une portion non négligeable vit également dans des plus petites villes (moins de 100 000 habitants)
et cela n'empêche pas que la majorité de la surface territoriale reste sous-financée (au profit de quelques métropoles et d'une mégalopole bien mieux financées).
les chiffres globaux sont donc a prendre avec des pincettes, car ils ne montrent qu'une moyenne au sein d'un ensemble bien hétérogène. (par exemple, si tu observes l'IDF et le limousin, t'a limite l'impression de voir deux pays séparés et pas des membres du même pays tellement les deux n'ont rien a voir)
“THIIIIIIISSSS is the economy of France. First, I’m going to discuss all the quirks and features, and then I’m going to give it a Doug Score.”
Ah good to see some overlap in subscriber base.
@Itachi Uchiha Doug DeMuro, a car channel
with a daily score and a weekend category
@@ereder1476 This country gets a 63 out of 100. That puts it with these other medium sized comfortable countries...
haha same
He says “The French Revolution”
Me, a student who has taken AP european history: Which one
How did you do on the exam?
Google “French Revolution “ , click top link.
The cool one
1789,1830,1848,1870 ( debatable) 1968 (also debatable) etc.
would anyone like to talk about this stuff? i'd love to exchange opinions with another person. Please if it was so, respond to this comment, thank you!
I am French and I approve this message. One thing, though : people can get fired, you just need an actual reason that is provable, like "not doing their job properly". It happens all the time.
No, you have to look you couldn't be further from the truth.
I think french people give more value to actually living than having money
@@Bowlyful I have fired people. I know what I'm talking about. I've been French my entire life.
@@unplu6 I can't speak for all of us but it's certainly true of pretty much everyone I know. It's possible for French people to be satisfied with their lives... although we will always complain to the government because we must keep them on their toes. And because it's fun.
@@TheNefastor alors oui mais quand t'es dans une grosse boite et que tu veux virer quelqu'un avec 20 ans d'ancieneté tu vas voir la note est salé/ Si tu vires des gens qui ont 2 ou 3 ans ca va tranquille.
I'm glad you had enough stock footage of France to not:"This is France: *shows footage of Belgium*"
Tamen Ω you mean Belgium isn't part of France?
@@StoutProper Belgium? Whats that? All i know is that region is split betuin northern France and southern Netherlands .
Wait? You mean that rebellious province of the netherlands?
@@StoutProper no, it's only a far better country to live, and don't forget most cool things people label as french are actually Belgian, starting with french fries
@@crudeliademon9237 Ça sert à rien de parler anglais mdr
"Beheaded some nobles."
That's like saying there's a few drops of water in the Atlantic ocean.
I think that's the best way to bring governments to pay more attention to the public's affairs. Since voting isn't working anywhere in the several developing economies of the world and even some developed economies.
@@utkarshg.bharti9714 Given that the participation in voting is about 60% in developed countries. How can governments listen to what people want through voting?
Thank you for this video 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...
Do you feel like there is much inequality between french people and immigrants from the colonies? Is it a big deal?
@@alessandropaleologo1534 sure but not a very different problem from many countries of Western europe. Actually we have two kinds of inequalities : impoverished suburbs around main cities and small/mid sized cities that gravitate around the large ones (which are economically much more dynamic).
For the lack of skilled workers issue, does France consider employing skilled immigrant workers from Asia and the rest of Europe.
Spot on about the inequalities in the regions, as an ex-pat Brit living in one of the poorest departments (86 Vienne, not in the north east) the level of poverty particularly amongst the old has been shocking. The employment rules have changed a bit but are still very different than the UK's higher & fire at will 'laws'. More and more people are using self employed workers (like me!) to get around the problem. Still much prefer to be poor and happy in France than stuck in the rat race in the UK.
@@livethefuture2492 it's hard mainly because of the language barrier but we have many skilled immigrants from Algeria, Morocco etc.
I thought their economy ran on baguettes and macaroons
Oh yeah but that goes without saying.
LaGardes and Macrons
LOL
It also runs on frogs and escargots. Délicieuse et uniquement français.
@An Vode Best discovery of 2020
"If you want to predict the future, look to France"
me (as a french) : Alright then future will sucks
@plentyness KAWABUNGA IT IS.
To be honest, I agree. And I didn't know that.
@Boris Erdogan Not all, but many (especially northern Marseille, Lille and Paris, especially outer Paris)
Je confirme. Cette vidéo est absolument irréaliste
@Boris Erdogan Ethnics slums because of colored people ? In this case we're not talking of spaniards, italian, polish, portugese, english, eastern people who came to France for the same purpose...
Last time I was this early the people could eat cake!
lmao
Last time I was this early France was called Gaul.
last time I was this early this meme was still relevant
You can only have your cake. You can't eat it too.
@@michaelsemper1044 kill the cake! Kill the cake!
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 video as always, keep it up and thank you for the first place I mean even though there are only 3 countries for now ^^
I was thinking, maybe you should make a video, solely ranking all the countries you have covered, as there many that should be on the list, such as the UK, US, China, Australia, South Africa etc. Just a thought😃
Or dilute it, and rank them one at a time, at the end of each video.
Ferenc Gazdag Ya something like that, all in one video could be a bit too more information
south africa my country. the land of the zulus
Thabang Tukule mine too, Zulus for life
@Ali G it would do great with the list, but it had been getting more unstable recently
Why does France make such good hard drives?
Because they have so many revolutions per minute
Not the most reliable solid state drives.
lol
huh?
apparently such good ancient hard drives who have never heard of SSD
Because they’re good at backing up.
One quick remark about the 35h/week : This is true for public services employees, not true for all other workers.
Even in the public sector it's no longer that true. I'm an engineer in the public sector and I have a 37.5h / week contract.
My father's a doctor in a public hospital. he works 6 days a week, with an average of 10-11 hours a day.
And he get on call too. Add an extra 12h
It's plain madness
@@Keln02 absolutely, wanted to make it simple for non French, but you are right.
Tout travail mérite salaire.
À lot of French people refuse to do "work-experience", where you're not paid, because life is expensive and you cant live on expérience. Maybe all citizens dont have as much available capital to invest in such situations.
@@philmerc364 Interships are spread and well accepted in France, they are a mandatory part of all trainings.
The problem comes when compagnies want to hire people for free and except the state to pay for it, the state should only pay if learn new valuable skills, and not just "work" for the compagny
That's why you do it whilst you're studying at least
@@philmerc364French here, did you think about complaints ? People are very specific about what they will do and not do before they start working. Changing the post, rotating position, changing the hours are big a no. They're quick to tell you they didn't sign for this and "faire valoir ses droits" (make your rights counts) is a major topic of discussion at dinner. I mean teacher prepare you not to accept anything and say no to the boss. Your parents will look over you when you start working so as not to be naively exploited by the boss. "Remember you have the right to that, you are allowed to ask for this, he can't make you do that". You didn't start working yet, but you"re watching for traps and you'll be a hero if you stand up for your rights.
Most guys, don't care about the customers, the business, they signed up very specific. They will do just that and wait to get enough seniority to become unfireable. That's their end game, once they know they can't get fired, you'll see how ethical they are. They'll only refrain from doing criminal stuff that can get them fired.
At most office, they are usually groups, those who can't get fired and chill and those who want to prove themselves so has not to be laid off just before they reach seniority (lol, the bosses like to get rid of people just before they can get fired ).
A topic suggestion: Economy of tax havens
I have already explored Monaco and the City of London but definitely something I will look at a little bit more in the future.
@@EconomicsExplained And Netherlands with their doble irish whatever
@@pamirhimalaj1300 He already did that one
@Economics Explained Could you do the economy of Nigeria or Rwanda? They seem interesting.
evading taxes are we 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.
Hi, this was a great video 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)
Hi, I'm French and I can tell you that you are FULLY right. This is the big PB. Value of the diploma is bigger than experience or results you had. It's a silo world that kill felx employement market. => BTW All what said about "take it easy" is TOTALLY WRONG vome and leave in France and you will see reality. 35 hours is a myth. If you look at realy fact into the country you see that it"s just "bad com" => France has lost all what was supposed to be social security for about 20 years now. But you should look to other more realistic KPIs than classical Macroeconomic ones.... I"m sad to hear thos cliché....
Great video, 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
Also the fact that unemployed people can make as much (if not more) money than employed people at times... This was counterbalanced by the RSA, a government bonus given to people with low wages so they make slightly more money than unemployed people... That's France in a nutshell: Social welfare is used and abused and the solutions to fix it rarely make sense.
As a French fan, I found this video 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.
Les CPGE filtrent, les universités pas. J'ai fait les deux, c'est deux mondes différents. La ou en prépa c'est galère et tout le monde à sa chance si il bosse, l'université c'est une garderie.
c'est la merde parce que les universités voient "on a pas vocation à être selective" pas comme le "On donne leur chance a tous" que ca devrait être, mais comme "Il est inscrit on lui donne son diplome dans quelques années". Un peu comme la SNCF voit "on a pas vocation à être profitable" comme .
Everywhere in the world is like that. That is why I believe that you should do everything legally possible to climb the social ladder. This will make it easier for your kids to keep climbing even higher
@@davidmartineztorres8731 Or get rid of selection universities altogether and invest in the quality of the whole education system. In countries like the Netherlands and Belgium, as long as you have obtained a university degree, it does not matter where it is from because the government safeguards all education institutions to be proportionally funded and meet the same high standards. It's the reason you don't have an equivalent of Oxford or Havard or the French grand écoles in Germany or the Benelux countries. But it is better for the population as a whole.
"The revolution was about people demanding to have a say on how their country was run"
Me : laughs in committee of public safety and Napoleon.
He should have said "The Revolution was about the bourgeois wanting to become the new nobles and using the disgruntled masses to do it"
But then plot twist! Avant la lettre Communist dictator takes power!
And then plot twist! Communist dictator just gives up and get executed, and bourgeois take power again!
And then plot twist! Military coup!
And then plot twist! The general who was just supposed to be hired muscle hijack the coup!
And then plot twist! He actually does more to push the ideals of the original Revolution than all the previous regimes combined!
And then plot twist! Well, you get the idea by now...
@@sephikong8323 exactly, first thing the "revolutionary" government did was abolishing right of assembly, labor strikes and labor unions.
@@eth3549 pretty much.
Me: laugh in 5th republic constitution.
*literally any country in the world*
EE: This is a very interesting case study
-"Tourism is one of the best exports a country can have"
-Croatia has entered the chat
-2020: "I'm about to ruin this country's whole economy"
I was actually planning to visit Croatia this summer
@@won1853 Well you will probably have a better experience than most until this season, since instead of looking at other tourists you will actually get to see the sights.
@Богдан Кондратов currently we are skyrocketing into the ground. Like a...uhhh...jet torpedo
@kroooassant unless the Austrians, Swedes, Dutch and Danish block that deal
Croatia has similar systemic problems as France but without any of the advantages. Inflexible labor system - check, complicated bureaucracy - check, huge taxes - check, general mentality of viewing private business as an enemy rather than a key component of society - check. Add a massive brain drain and an aging population. Croatia is a country in very, very deep... problems.
This video 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.
French paperwork is terrible that’s true, but as a French living in Australia I can say there is a lot of problem in Australia as well
@@HC-nj3bs These countries are incomparable, Australia is paradise compared to France for an expat.
As a French, yes our administration and paper work is a nightmare. Opening a business certainly is. That French myth certainly is true.
On top of that, there's a lot of approximations. So even if you have the money to hire a lawyer to do it for you, it's still a long nightmare. One thing many people miss about France, is that we are the champions of having lots of law, but very little enforcement, and some degree of wrong enforcement. Including in government services and general administration.
@@anonanon334 You probably can't answer this question but out of curiosity if you can, how does the UK itself compare to those two countries respectively?
Country: France
Sport: Revolutions
Motto: Off with his/her head!
@kroooassant Isn't it "Liberté, égalité, fraternité!"?
@@goliathsteinbeisser3547 its switzerland
@@goliathsteinbeisser3547 yes
US could do with some of that... seriously.
EE: French revolution is so extent theres university courses on it.
Me who watches oversimplified.
Hey! Loved the video :)
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!
I lived 20 years in France and I think you are spot on, the sheer amount of red tape and inflexible employment policies is strangling innovation and entrepreneurship in France. Steps have been taken to try and change this but their is significant resistance to change 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:(
please do a video on the economies of Yugoslavia and fascist economies
Just look at modern world. Fascism is everywhere now and i doubt anyone can stop this since Russians won't going to do it.
SmoK Are you serious? This has to be a joke.
@@Русские_вперед Fascism is everywhere? You must be blinded. Everyone says that
Fascism isn't an economic model. Nazi germany was heavily socialist (for the time), Chile was heavily capitalist.
@marios gianopoulos fascism is based on corporativism
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
I live in FR. I think you're mostly right. But bureaucracy must be the single biggest issue I can't believe how much of it there is
immigration****************
I thought he would start by saying:
"This is Las Vegas!"
LOL.
If only I had a time machine so I could go back and re-edit this video.
Viva Las Vegas
You forgot one important detail: French social security isn't free - it comes at a price of the highest taxes in Europe.
@@Weeee439 yes it does, if you count taxes and mandatory social security contributions
@@Weeee439 Actually highest public spending in the World. 57% of the GDP is spent by the public sector every year. Which is more than Scandinavian country despite the fact that France is only half as rich.
@@karisvenner3892 France isn’t half as rich that’s ridiculous
@@barnaby4232 Yes it is, just check the GDP per capita of different countries.
Norway : $80000
Denmark : $60000
Sweden : $50000
Finland : $50000
France : $40000
All Scandinavian countries are 25% to 100% richer than France. (And these are 2019 numbers, 2020 numbers will most show an even wider gap thanks to strict lockdowns applied in France)
@@karisvenner3892 exactly so what you said was objectively wrong plus those numbers aren't even accurate, how does 25 percent more rich equate to twice as rich?
Largest Exports : Guillotines and Baguettes
The staples
LOL
what about surrender and revolution jokes
i am starting a revolution against your evil rule.
What aboot frogs and snails
Rohit Raj 1996 called, they want their French stereotypes back.
Great video. Since this video focused on the impact of tourism on France, I feel like it would be really interesting if you made a video on Hawaii. I'm from Hawaii myself and COVID-19 has absolutely killed the tourism industry here.
I just like your videos even before they start because I know the content is going to be excellent anyway.
Thanks for the support mate :)
Create "The Economy of Singapore" or "The Economy of Portugal" next!
I’ve got good news, there already is a video about Singapore ;)
Lol what economy of Portugal? It has not its place in Western Europe compared to those countries it is a underdeveloped poor and dirty country with more lazy people..... Portugal should be compared to Eastern European countries..... in fact Poland and Czech Republic are also doing better
Henrich von Staufenberg It is more beautiful, culturally relevant, and kind than Germany
@@henrichvonstaufenberg4841 Czechia is pretty decent as a country you know. I haven't been to Portugal but poverty isn't exactly a central/Eastern European forte, given the thousands of homeless people in the United States, UK, and urban centres of large, developed western European countries.
@@capecodcorporate then you don’t know what culture means, beauty is different for everyone and lol only met weird sketch people in Portugal and a lot of bad intentioned people in Germany none of these..... and that’s because Portugal is a poor country so many people want to trick you..... even managers at 5 stars hotels are incompetent and just want your money nothing compared to the curtesy of German hotels
Jeepers, the last time I was this early, the US was still apart of the Paris climate accord.
oh... noooo.
This video 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.
That being said, taxes are the issue. The french system is overindulging particularly to low qualification people.
There is a bias towards relaxing, but french education system and culture value education, science and hard work. People compete fiercely for a place into a Grande Ecole, despite the salary gap between an Engineer and a bartender not being as pronounced as it is in the US.
Maybe one way to see it is that we do not need as much money to entice us to invest our lives and give our hard work to become someone productive.
Somewhere else, you need to be paid 5 to 6X more to be persuaded to become an engineer rather than not studying or studying an "easier" career.
Bien dit :)
I'll add Bureaucracy was expanded by the government to create more jobs for some unemployed.
But it is a bottleneck in business.
For example changing a headquarter address or the name of a company (SAS) needs to write to 3 lawyers and cost a few 1000 EUR.
I teach in French universities (Korean studies). I think that we indeed are really good in social sciences, but the way we design our universities’ curricula is sometimes too oblivious of the fact that most students are not planning to become theoretical researchers. It does lack a bit of pragmatism and is too disconnected from the business world in my mind. There’s definitely room for improvement I would think.
@@damienpeladan481 I agree. In my experience, pragmatism is the only area where I feel that studies in the US are superior to studies in France. Perhaps that is the most important area. The French education system can do better, but more importantly, it should adapt faster to an ever-changing world.
@@damienpeladan481 I think this is a problem in most old countries with old educationitional institutions. I didn't go to Uni here in the UK, but based off my experience in the lower schools and my mates, it seems that is also the case there. The could also be said of old Italian universities as well.
I believe it's because they're so old and icnonic, that often it's hard to change the outlook of how to change the educational communities outlook on how to teach at these Uni's.
Like you're not going to tell Oxford how to teach, even though they lack pragmaticism.
Although I think the UK did a good job of tackling this with the whole apprenticeship schemes and subsidsy schemes for taking on unexperinced people. From what I heard from this video is that in France, you haven't reallt adopted this, which would probably help in developing the pragamatic side of things
France! UK's favourite hexagon!
@Boris Erdogan err 418
pentagon?
Hexagons are the bestagons!
Just my two cents as a trained economist from France !
In the video, 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.
In my opinion It results in the fact that in France If you aren't able to beat your partners in Science, you'll have to pick the other tracks that are left for you. If you're not below average intellectually, the short study path is clearly not your best bet on average. First, the wages are quite low in the vast majority of situations, which should be indeed expected from a job which doesn't require a lot of qualification, and the working conditions are generally not stellar, which should also be expected from physically demanding jobs, which obviously discourages some that are potentially interested...
But the real problem that makes It very unattractive to reasonably smart people is that It's extremely difficult to grow out of this carreer because there's an oversupply of people with a tertiary degree that will as a rule be selected before you for the promotion.
It's therefore, in the majority of cases, a worse carreer path for the individual in a vast majority of situations than sludging through a questionably useful degree and then stumbling upon an office job. This equilibrium is arguably worse for the country as a whole (because It definitely results in a lack of trained technical workers) but French people are fiercely individualistic and no governement will be able to change that in a lifetime.
But the fact that technical studies are then out of the question because only the best students really get the chance to study the technical subjects. It pretty much leaves people with everything else, where the supply of Education is nearly as high as the demand. Subjects like Psychology, Law, Applied Economics (theoritical Economics is quite hard to get into in France unless you're a trained engineer)...
Of course, devil hides in details and schools like the ENS offers an extremely selective and prestigious cursus for the very best in less technical subject matters and those will become world class professors in their own sphere of expertise like late Nobel Prize Esther Duflo, but they're an exception rather than the rule and they're pretty much only there for scholarly purpose and too small to offer a realistic alternative path to good carreers.
But It's then not really a surprise that there's an oversupply of people that are intellectually minded and able to carry an interesting conversation till 5 AM like a typical cliché of a French person does and a lack of skilled technical worker that are better at their job than at questioning the nature of Labor in modern economies.
Therefore, what France lacks the most in comparison to its more successful European partners is a category between the Elite that is extremely competent, maybe the most scholarly excellent in the world, and the common folks that can't really innovate because they don't possess the ability to because of their lack of training in the relevant skills.
It's not really a random occurrence to me that those people are indeed the insanely productive backbone of every of the most successful European countries like Switzerland, Germany or Sweden. Those are the real treasures of modern developed economies.
Therefore, I think France's situation pretty much shows better than any other developed countries the danger of striving for having the very best while neglecting to uplift the average guy. Maybe It's time to accept this and to find a path to solve the serious problem of France's lack of skilled workers... For me, It inevitably starts by stopping to care as much about the excellency of the cream of the crop that will thrive in every system anyway and temperate the feel-good policies that only really function under the assumption that every kind of work is equal... And to simply start to care about the people that are not the very best but still would be completely able to do well in the highly complex modern economy If they were given the tools to do so.
It's things that would show their effects in the long term however ... Never too late I guess, but given France's relatively bleak perspectives in the near future, It's time to seriously think about It to avoid the less enviable situation of our Southern cousins.
One short term solution that could however be used in the meanwhile would be to tap into this supply of worker by allowing people that weren't trained for their technical jobs to be able to do so while working. It would require some concession on the worker's side (you can't remunerate very well a person that is not operational for the job, obviously) but I feel like an even steeper obstacle mentality-wise lies in the employers.
Indeed, I feel like French recruiters are not confident enough in their recruits ability to improve with work experience and will sometimes unconsciously think that If you weren't trained for It in your tertiary education specifically then It's prefferrable to wait for another candidate, potentially leaving behind someone that was honestly competent enough to learn this skill and would have costed you less in the long run (Ce qui est rare est cher).
PS : I feel like you overrate the value of the "Made in France" brand value somewhat. It's definitely true for all the things that are typically associated with France like wines or luxury goods ... But far less so for other products like car manufacturing or Aeronautics which are nonetheless pivotal to the French economy... Just look at the popular image of Peugeot in the UK as an example.
Few people also seem to know that the de facto headquarter of Airbus is in France, and that France is therefore one of the World leader in this sector. Can definitely agree that being a world leader in Aeronautics isn't really something extremely valuable currently, though...
Nice summmary of current state of French economy.
Bravo! Well written.
So what you are saying is that France should do what the US realized not long ago. That people can learn how to do a job by doing that job not in school. And the smartest person or most educated isn’t always the best for the job. My English professor from France reminds me very much of this elitism. She criticizes American constantly but doesn’t have any ideas on a solution to the problem. As an Economics major and lover of the discipline I have finally started to point out the problem with her views. It hasn’t made me very popular with her but the class has definitely thanked me.
Absolutely love your content. Excited for this video. Your work inspired me to start my own channel
Go for it!
Solid stuff buddy 💪💪💪💪
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.
yeah, reminds me of shitons of studends choosing psycology, human sciences, literature, hystory, international relationships, political sciences but a very small amount of then can actualy find a job related to their studies...
that's why some years after ending high school i choose to study beverage technician, 100% real world teaching for beign a skilled worker in production and commerce about beverages (wine excluded)
C'est la meme chose au Canada!
Economics of Argentina pls!
Che, cuantas copas tenes
@@davidmartineztorres8731 Falklands Islands are British
I've been commenting this for the last 6 months, hope they listen at some point
would anyone like to talk about this stuff? i'd love to exchange opinions with another person. Please if it was so, respond to this comment, thank you!
I second this!
Thanks for being the most informative channel to date.
Economy has always been an area where I lacked and your videos provide the perfect ground to get into it amd understand our current world better.
“THEES IS FRAHNS”
Shams Ellissius
Do a short episode on the economic effect of America not adopting the #superior metric system.
When France sneezes, the rest of the Europe catches the cold
Except Germany
no that's china
cough secretely means surrender cough
@@jascrandom9855 *dismantles the HRE and humiliates Prussia*
I believe it was Metternich(Austrian chancellor) who said that during the 1840's
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.
What economic system would that be ?
Another issue is that practical skills learning has been seen as a way to discharge failing students from classical system, as well as the unprepared orientation of students before they go to university and other higher level studies.
It's also quite difficult for workers to adapt their skills to the market and re-learn, it's getting better but there isn't as much investment as it should be.
I think the German education system has managed to buff its industry alot by having two higher education systems besides Uni that focus on practical skills and have a good acceptance in society while overall larbour rights are pretty similar. We have other problems though the french dont have in this magnitude.
@@Chocolouf I absolutely agree about th stigma around practical skills, not specifically in France (as I am not French and don't know), but in my country I have found the stigma around practical trades has been a contributor to university dropouts who feel disillusioned because they were never learning something they enjoyed and felt good at to begin with.
I don't want to say "overeducation" because I don't believe higher education should be exclusively for having a job in that field, but certainly an inappropriate blanket push towards white collar fields, where a more nuanced approach much leave people more satisfied with their occupation.
@@meneither3834 I don't know France's culture well enough to know what the French people want most from their economic system. I have my preferred brand of communism, and Frances history suggests they might be keen on it too but maybe times change.
There are also systems like Parecon, examples of economies which are something entirely new.
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.
Simple solution: don't rack any dividends.
Capital appreciation has been so underrated over the past 10 years, yet it is the hallmark of "value" in investment.
For this reason, I'm not surprised French legislation goes against the US model. You always need an alternative to the status quo. All is well.
Totaly agree : From a french entrepreneur who leaved France.
American living in a French overseas territory. Great video 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 video. Flanders vs wallonia, shift in wealth, language borders, world wars, beer companies…. Would love to see it.
As an Englishman, I laugh at the sinking boat of France while the UK heads towards the iceberg, good thing I'm also Irish (and American but we don't talk about that)
Also do another UK video pleeeeeèeese
Keelan Farrell Dude focus on putting one or two points across lol
Chill out Ireland isn't doing that good.
umm....
so you are an irishman pretending to be an american pretending to be an englishman pretending to not be drinking tea while eating hamburgers with a side of potatoes.
your passport must be a nightmare
The UK has already hit the iceberg, nowadays they're just burning the safety boats.
1. Size
2. GDP Per Capita
4. Stability and Confidence (Fix me at 16:05)
4. Growth
5. Industry
Found one, EE! Sorry, no time to do the spreadsheet! Love your channel! Cheers from Hawaii!
What about making a video, 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 video to make and you could shamelessly plug all your prior videos to get more sweet, sweet views. Top notch content btw.
Quarentine has made me an addict to your videos
..."Tried and tested formula."
_Sees only two countries ranked so far_
Thanks for this video !
9:34 "Tourism is the best export industry you can have"
Corona: nope
I am French and I find that this video explains very well the good sides and the bad sides of the economy of my country
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
it’s interesting to see how we can often reduce many problems to faults in the educational system
me: sees #superior when talking about the metric system,
also me: *Instant like*
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.
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 channel 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
Prestige fades, and by the way, France has a growing population, so it would need to grow to keep the standards up.
If you get outgrown you'll just end up assimilated into someone else's economic sphere which happened to France after WW2.
Also I wonder to what extend what you said applies to Japan.
They planned more than 100millions of tourists to come to France by 2020s...but in the mean time Covid boy came out
An excellent introduction. I have assigned this to my Doing Business in France class.
I would absolutely love it, if you finished of Scandinavia with The Economy of Denmark.
Please consider posting the lost of sources for future videos in the descriptions, it would be very nice to do further readings on the sources of your videos
Can we please forget about the myth of the french 35 hours workweek? I'm french , work 45 hours a week and know no one in my entourage who works under 40 hours
I watched a few of your videos now and before I begin watching I always think, "I wonder if he is going to mention x?" and you always do. It gives me a lot of confidence that you know what you're talking about and try to include all the relevant facts.
Great videos, 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.
Mother of god that last segment sounds like paradise.
When you can, could you look at spain? I'm curious as to know about them as well
17:45 Best elevator experience I have seen. I will for sure pay the markup to try it.
so its like an economic ecosystem that has inflexible culture clashing with their own economic system...
Waiting for this video for soooo long! Thanks
It's also rumored to have the highest productivity per person, i want to know more about that, also educated french worker export very well, especially in stem, what about that?
Brain drain (we have high income taxes, so some people move out)
And there is also the great employment bottleneck.
As most new workers come into the labour force both completely over qualified due to having done long studies, but at the same time being grossly under qualified as these courses for the most part don't teach any real life skills, you end up with youths being heavily unemployed and if they find a job, they quickly get taxed dry, so many simply escape the country.
And these problems aren't going away anytime soon thanks to the ubiquitous power of unions
@@jeremyboudaud3322 Not a significant brain drain, about the same as other developed economy. But a "rich drain".
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).
Sounds like they need to reform their education system, and encourage entrepreneurship.
Sounde like you dont know what your talking about
@@videogamebomer He knows *EXACTLY* what he is talking about.
Our education system is a joke on almost every level and only worsens all the rest (an over abundance of over qualified new workers with no real world skill whatsoever) and the fact that creating a new business is so hard (and risky considering the lack of safety net and the high taxation) only hurts the economy, we have been relying on mega corporations that relocate their factories for far too long and it's time we start to create new businesses that benefit the real, local economy instead of relying on enormous corporations with no loyalty to their country whatsoever
@@sephikong8323 well you better not go look at america's education system..
@@elon6131 dude the only problem with the American education system is that it is expensive we have to make sure College are affordable but those university make good studrbt
@@ahadumer418 the really expensive colleges are the only ones who actually do a good job. that's hardly a point in the US's favour, because this is true everywhere.
the hallmark of a good system is that even when you don't have hundreds of thousands of dollars, you can still get good education.
I think for every video you make about a country, you should also add one of your previously reviewed countries to the leader board as well
You should do one of these on New Zealand, wanna know what we'd be rated as
Wait does New Zealand even exist? You must be taking about little Australia! XD
Its so aesthetically pleasing to hear Economics Explained say "but"
This video 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% (2018), [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).
- Education and Research, Yes french university are not our best assets, but they still make the best mathematicians on earth (with Princton university). The system is dual, the Grandes écoles, and the university. without going further in it judging the system only with university is a mistake. Buisness school are good, Engeenering, MedSchool and even economics. We ahve a lack of integration between The private sector and the university. But as i said University is only one of the two pillars of French Higer edu system.
Reasearch isn't done in the university as much as they do in other countries, Many labs are run by the state. What is to be understood with the french education system is : it's complicated beyond reason, but miraculously working. And the country is still -2019) the 5th largest patent producer. I will not defend it because it's not worth it. But the system is bad but works. and that not uncomon in France, things are overly complicated but still work.
- What about the big players, out of the top 500 corporations worldwide as measured by revenue. Franceis the 4th. with 0.462 compagny per 1M inhab (only outperformed by the Swiss and the Dutch in the top 10 countries). They lead the economy (most of them have been creation of the state like Saint-Gobin in ...1665 or EDF in 1946).
They are doing buisness in many fields, allowing the economy to be diverse and drive a lots of ressources in research. While the states run labs are doing most of reasearch instead of the university (despite often been link one another with colaboratory work, Teacher are also working for Labs that are only coleaded by the university and partly by the State (seek about the CNRS).
- Employment rate, Yes it is low , why ? The social choice is : better not work than having a badly paid, part time job. The poverty rate is lower in france compared with other OECD, and the productivity is higer, the countries choosed another way to devide the wealths generated within the country. that's a Political choice more than an economical anomaly.
Their is some truth about the "impossible to fire a french employee" but that's greatly exagerated. If your buisness isn't doing profite, you can totaly fire employees. The buraucracy here is a nightmare for buisness and entrepreneurs, but if you are a medium or big compagny that's how they got most of their subventions, and they rarely complain about this part.
- No they don't go on strike often (other europeans beat us at this game) but when they do, be sure everyone notice. The french culture is about clash and fight, so when the unions strike it means negociation are "ongoing". Strike isn't the result of failed negotiation but often a part of the negotiation. (this is ofc generalising). Their is also a reasuring trend in the Anglo-saxon world to show how franceis terrible and unstable, a sort of self reasuring, mainly in the UK. But data are clear, two countries are very much alike when it come to economical growth and GDP , GDP per capita, the inqualities beeing higer in the UK. mainly showing all the turmoil we see and hear is more about theatrical stand than real long term economical differences.
In overall i'm a bit surprise you got the big picture of the country but the detailes are full of misconceptions and stereotypes.
Thanks for the video, and take care, I would be pleased if you do the economy of the EU one day ;D
I think you are pointing at the limit of this format and this channel: it has to almost caricature countries' economies in order to give us the big picture in a short and understandable manner.
And of course it misses key aspects but overall it's still interesting. However it should be seen more as an invitation to learn more than as an accurate synthesis.
I think that a foreigner watching this video will get a good and accurate idea of what the particularities of the French economy are and how it fares compared to the rest of the world. Most of what you pointed at are details in comparison with the main aspects that make the French economy stand out.
Great series Bro, Well Explained, good Contenet!
Any chance you get into the details a little more about what kind of things they import, exporet. E.G apps, clothes, Inteligence, RandD etc etc.
Keep you the good work. Its appreciated !
That "France struggles because the French don't like to be exploited by corporations" take presented unironically is really something
Well I think that's not what he said. The biggest problem in France is not workers rights, it's the rigidity in the labour force. People in Sweden have just as many rights, but it's much easier to do business without a thousand restrictions and rules. Social security is one of europes strongest points, but france is a good example on how it can actually hurt the common man. People are often stuck in their job they don't like because the extreme benefits and safety it brings while finding a new job can be hard, because you are just too expensive.
Meanwhile in the US, they are encouraged to exploit people, as most corporations own American senators of all political parties.
you should make a video where you go over all the countries you’ve already made the videos for and put them on the list
All I have to say about the reasons for the unemployment is, je ne sais pas!
Thanks for the video. The scenes make me yearn for travelling to resume.
How can you do such a nice, thorough job of analyzing France's economy without even mentioning immigration?
Emmigration non ? Tous ceux qui créent de la richesse dans ce pays se cassent.
@@whynotfr Ça veut dire quoi, alors? Et 'emmigration' c'est pas un mot. Vous vouliez dire immigration ou émigration?
@@simonestreeter1518 ça veut dire qu’on importe les pires éléments du monde et que les français de base qui ont dans l’histoire fait se pays se barrent à l’étranger. Le numéro du faux zeteticien a 2 balles qui reprend quelqu’un pour une faute de frappe c’est relou. Je continuerai pas la discussion puisque nos avis sont trop divergents et ça ne sert à rien de débattre puisque l’on est même pas en accord sur le constat de base.
@@whynotfr Bah non, vous vous trompez. Je suis d'accord, et j'ai fait la pub originale parce que la vidéo essayait de cacher le point par l'omettre. Et excusez-moi pour le malentendu, le français c'est pas mon langue maternelle. Bonne soirée.
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
I would love to visit when this pandemic is over. 👍
certainly would recommend
Would recommend you to try more than just Paris.
There is a place in France where you have a magnificent castle every 20km or so.
@@damienthrynity8918 any video on tourist spots?
French people like this.
Be carreful with Paris. France is not only Paris we have nice stuff also 😉
Great video! :)
Future video suggestion: Economy of Venice Republic, probably the most underrated economic superpower of the middle ages.
Do a video on the analysing the strongest economic participants of the European union and speculate the affect of the coronavirus pandemic of the union and the Euro currency
You should do a video rating the countries you have covered already
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.
my mom works in the government in Canada and her salary is almost the same for 10 years. I think after the 2008 financial crisis, most developed countries stopped increasing salaries for government workers due to lack of economic growth
Please do a video focused on ranking all the economies already covered to get the leaderboard up to date
I watched all the Economics explained video, 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.
i'd been waiting for this video!!
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 watching people stay in their jobs forever who are incompetent was just too much.
Annoying aye, but I'm sure you can equally understand why I could never move back. The culture is so fascinating, the food so good and cities so nice. Always a positive and a negative
Hi there, wonderful and interesting video! I would change the title though since the argument seems to be “How the French economy serves as an Indicator of the global economy.” But the title implies that the French economy is the force that acts upon the world economy in “setting the trend.”