The European Way

One of the underlying motivations for Euro Federalists is to be able to protect the European Social Model. The Draft constitution includes an attempt to carve this particular piece of lunacy in stone. Over at Adam Smith they take up the subject of productivity;

Snooty academics have been gleefully asserting how bad British managers are, and how we should all copy Continental social policies, following a study which says UK productivity is 20% lower than France and Germany. But unlike those countries, Britain has a flexible labour market. It's simply impossible to fire anyone in France and Germany, so you don't hire them in the first place. You hire robots instead. And that's why Britain's unemployment is non-existent and France and Germany's are through the roof.

One day the peoples of both France and Germany will be forced to accept this truth and reform accordingly. If the rest of Europe is not forced to follow in their footsteps, that day will be sooner rather than later. Social legislation is an area where competition between different models is far better than a monoculture.