It’s impressive how Europe actually seems to have more capital intensity and automation on some dimensions despite lower average wages
My guess is because of wage compression and higher low end wages specifically
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It sure doesn’t feel like lower average wages when living there, not sure if PPP is helpful?
also labor protection rules. that worker can't be fired overnight and has rights (safety, vacation...) so he might as well be as much productive as possible. one contrast is seeing real shoe shiners in us airports. i was shocked to say the least.
Total European company cost for an employee = low avg wage + employee pension contribution + employer pension contribution + health insurance + prob(need to downsize or terminate) * 12-36 months termination cost
Total is higher than US salaries and companies are acting
There is also public investment and demand for high quality public services. When I first visited Philadelphia, the normality of light outages, firefighter trucks and public buses dating from the eighties are really an experience.
They seemed to have figured out self checkouts at supermarkets before the US iirc. Feel the same. It ‘looks’ like a region with K/L > US K/L
Possibly because while take-home wages are low, the cost to the employer is high (including intangibles like inability to fire workers)?
Doesn't look like Germany, but if the German situation is anything to go by, (i) this looks like public sector (ii) where wage compression is pretty extreme.
Same thing with China. Wages are are fraction of the US average, probably around one-quarter. But the Chinese economy is rushing headlong into maximum automation in all spheres.
Definitely. And that's part of the reason why I wouldn't ignore productivity per hour worked stats. I think that many low-wage workers in Europe actually do have more capital at their disposal and are often more productive than in other places.
Unions, labor market inflexibility, looooong vacations (all at the same time). Labor is relatively costly there.
I've seen these in the US. It's just that in general we don't clean public spaces on the regular.
we have these (not the exact model) roaming around some downtowns in Ontario - by roaming I mean being dragged around by city employees
Currently in Italy: surprised to see robot landscaping machines driving around autonomously cutting grass and weeding
Maybe cheaper for govt to fund/use robots here than import cheap labor
NYC employees many humans I think as a jobs program + robots would be vandalized
Inside the ascendance of Anthropic's first lady.
Socialism with a higher tax bracket.
They spend their money to help.
This is driven by technology companies pushing their products on a market that does not need them. Enabling infra like wide roads and cookie cutter shops are absent, the products result in zero overall efficiency gain
Consequence of regulations that inhibit labor productivity and flexibility ?
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