Tuesday, August 12, 2003
In Europe, a decline in productivity and religion
In Europe the love of leisure has surpassed the love of God, threatening the economy of the expanding European Union. Niall Ferguson, writing in the The New York Times, credits the Protestant work ethic with America's relative affluence.
A century ago the German sociologist Max Weber argued that modern capitalism was "born from the spirit of Christian asceticism." In short, self-denial rooted in religion led to hard work and success.
Three out of five Americans now work more than 50 hours a week, more than their grandparents in the 1920s. Alone among the world's industrialized nations, the U.S. has no law requiring a minimum annual paid leave. Indeed, some 13 percent of American companies offer no paid vacation at all.
Whereas the average American works just under 2,000 hours every year, the typical German works 22 percent fewer hours, and the Dutch and Norwegians even fewer. Not only is the European work week shorter than ours, but our trans-Atlantic neighbors typically enjoy month-long annual vacations plus other holidays.
Ferguson observes that "the declines in working hours in northern Europe coincide almost exactly with precipitous declines in religious observance there. Fewer than one in 10 Dutch, Swedish, British, German, and Danish citizens attend church at least once a month. Majorities in these countries told the Gallup Millennium Survey that God did not matter to them at all. By contrast, 82 percent of American respondents insisted that God was "very important" to them.
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