Europe vs. the US

See a trend? (from today's WSJ)

As today's Financial Times reports:

Leading countries failed last year to introduce economic reforms designed to increase the proportion of adults in work, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

In its annual benchmark of OECD member country living standards published on Tuesday, the Paris-based international organisation said that its policy suggestions a year ago to increase labour utilisation – the productive deployment of people of working age – “have in most cases neither taken place nor been planned”.

Poor economic performance, particularly in continental Europe and Japan, over the past two decades has led to a big decline in relative living standards compared with the US.

In fairness to countries such as France some moves have been proposed to loosen labor regulations to boost employment. This, however, has prompted widespread protests with demonstrators even equating the new laws with slavery. I guess the left there is just as unserious as the left here.