lhe differences between the economic and social models of the United States and France are considerable. The fiscal pressure is 48% of the gross domestic product (GDP) in France and 28% in the United States, with a pension system essentially by capitalization in the United States, fundamentally by distribution in France, where the weight of pensions in the GDP exceeds 14%. %. Public spending on social protection in France (pensions, health insurance, unemployment insurance) represents 32.2% of GDP, compared to 17% in the United States. In short, a very protective State in France and very little protective in the United States…
This gap between the generosity of social protection systems is reinforced by the large divergence between the United States and France in terms of income sharing. In the United States, since 2002, labor productivity has increased by 42%, while real wages per capita have only increased by 18%: therefore, the share of wages in GDP has decreased considerably. In France, on the other hand, real wages per capita have increased by 17% since 2002 and productivity per capita by 12%: therefore, the share of wages in GDP has increased.
The fact that social protection is significantly more generous in France than in the United States, a generosity financed by a much heavier tax burden, and that income sharing is much more favorable to employees in France than in the United States It has significant consequences on the level of inequality and poverty. The Gini index of income inequality is 0.39 in the United States and 0.29 in France: a value of 1 indicates a totally unequal society, where a single individual monopolizes all income, a value of 0 indicates a perfectly egalitarian society, where all individuals have the same. income. The percentage of the population below the poverty line, those whose income is less than 60% of the median income, is 25% in the United States and 15% in France.
take risks
Therefore, in terms of equity, the French model is clearly superior to the American model. But in an unequal society, with few public transfers to the poorest, individuals are forced to invest in human capital, in education, to avoid poverty; they take more risks, for the same reasons; and the effort at work is greater than in a society where safety nets are numerous and generous.
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