In Germany peak hour traffic on a Friday is 2 pm.
That is from Alberto Alesina and Francesco Giavazzi, The Future of Europe: Reform or Decline.
The best sentence I read today
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All the more reason to leave at noon.
That’s outrageous. Why aren’t they in the pub?
Slow sentence day?
Sounds like one of these things people like to believe whether they check out or not, like the bogus Swedish suicide rates. The implication seems to be that Germans who are supposed to work until five o’clock on Fridays mischievously take of at two. This isn’t accurate.
Peak traffic hours in Germany tend to be mostly around 6-8 in the morning and 4-6 in the afternoon (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verkehrszeiten). A large part of traffic, particularly public traffic, in Germany consists of schoolchildren and students travelling to and from school. Schools tend to end earlier on Fridays. Also, people who work less than 40 hours generally take these hours off at the end of the week. But those who work a full working day on Friday don’t take off three hours early. If I may say so, the work ethic is very strong.
Here’s a thought: consider spare time as just another purchasable commodity, which people in some cultures like to spend money on, and others don’t. Isn’t it worth earning just a little bit less, to have a life? If it’s OK to blow a fortune on a swimming pool you never have time to use or a fancy car that gives you no joy, why is it not OK to spend some of your income on having more time for yourself and your family?
Also, note that working a lot of hours isn’t necessarily the same as producing a lot. The people of neighboring Poland work 46% more, and have little to show for their pains.
OT
I hope you don’t mind an off-topic comment, but I think this is important: There is a great post on The Carpetbagger Report from a few days ago about the mainstream media’s (specifically Time magazine’s) ignoring the prosecutor purge scandal.
What explains the failure of the mainstream media to cover the purge scandal for so long, and so many other scandals? Do you think somebody just set up newspaper editors to cheat on their wives, and threatened to tell if the editors wouldn’t play ball when they come back some day and ask for something?
It wouldn’t be that hard to do, when you think about it. People wouldn’t talk about it.
Germany 1437 h/y
USA 1713
Italy 1801
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/30/41/29867131.pdf
I guees OCDE wont make bogus statistics
are u in my international econ class? we are reading that
good for them, there is more to life than work. europe is a really fun and relaxed place to live, we don’t run to stand still. And the women are very very hot.
Germany is such a beautiful place, you guys have no idea.
interesting comment JRip– the german and japanese auto firms that are doing so well against Detroit actually have more powerful unions then in Detroit.
So what does that do to the thesis that the unions are responsible for Detroit’s downfall?
With all the Euro social programs, labor unions etc. please explain why German car companies are doing so well whilst the 3 American companies seem to be vying for the dustbin.
The “German” auto companies (and “Japanese” auto companies) build their North American cars (North America being the make-or-break auto market) in non-Union “Right To Work” states. Usually their autos are manufactured in places like Georgia, Tennesse… Where as the “American” auto companies build their autos in places like Detroit, which are heavily unionized.
You do realize that U.S. companies manufacture their Euro market cars in Europe, and German companies manufacture their U.S. market cars primarily in the U.S., right? The Ford Focus sold in the U.K. is not manufactured in the U.S., and the M coupe sold in New York is not manufactured in German?
Nice try though.
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