SDA is chalk full of regular commenters from a variety of backgrounds. So I’m very interested to get your collective take on this video. Assuming that the facts presented are accurate, why is the productivity of Canadians so much lower than that of Americans?
Here’s a hint. What is the average work week in hours for someone in Quebec? A lot of companies in that province took a page out of France’s playbook. While it used to be 40 hours. It’s now closer to 35. I noted Quebec pretty low on that graph in the video as well. Here’s the thing. In the US you are required in most full time jobs to put in 40 hours a week. I’ve worked a number of places where that’s just a guideline on the low side. Your work ethic in a lot of places (not controlled by unions) is to work until the job is done. That seems normal to most Americans. Oh, and then there is that “merit” based promotion. If you want that promotion and to advance, you’re going to show up on some weekends as well. That used to be the case. Less so now.
There’s a caveat. Women, on average, work the required number of hours, and off they go. I’ve seen this everywhere. It’s annoying…sometimes.
Hours worked is the divisor. Productivity is production per hour worked. Must be something else, although I take your point about total hours, which would draw down GDP/capita.
Not necessarily. The mentality of the worker and their investment in the employer are a key factor. Just because the employee is given a 40 hour work week, doesn’t mean they aren’t putting in many more hours than that. That seemed to be the norm in all the offices I’ve worked in. And, in the US, at least, service industries aren’t going to pay overtime. So, the divisor may be 40 hours, but the actual work week is significantly higher than that.
On a separate note, what type employees do the Gender Studies, Urban Studies, and the like degrees produce? I’ve always held that such degrees can actually retard your production. These people end up in Human Resources, and as we’ve seen, they are less interested in experience/skill, and more interested in what the person looks like or where they came from. Oh, and let’s not forget that they are cashing out the experienced, long term guys to open up those slots.
No argument there…dead weight on the organization.
Orson, you have most of it. The piece you’ve left out is the much larger proportionate size of the public sector in Canada. All public service detracts from total national productivity because its work produces no useful return. There has to be some public sector to do all the necessary things that government is required to do, and we can debate just what needs to be on the list. But proportionately, Canada’s public sector is much larger than the US. Hence its productivity must be lower, all other things being equal.
I disagree with you about women. There was a huge jump in national productivity after WW1. More and more women were joining the work force in a host of industries and businesses which created real economic wealth. And it’s still generally true today. The real question is not hours worked but the quality of those hours and the resulting economic return. But that was factored into the economy many decades ago.
The other factor you may have left out is a lower rate of capital investment in Canada on introducing new technology compared to the US.
Norway, Denmark, Sweden, etc. all have significantly larger public sectors as a percentage of total workforce compared to the United States, yet they all have as high or higher levels of labour productivity as well.
It’s one factor among a host of other factors. Canada’s extreme disinvestment policy under Trudeau is another large one.
My mom instilled a ‘do what you are asked to’ work ethic in me at the tender age of 16 when I was a dishwasher in a pizza joint. Four years later I got into management and worked 60 hours a week for years. No overtime because I was on salary.
My mother’s influence stayed with me my entire career and was instrumental in helping me get promoted in various organizations.
Work hard. Do the extra stuff without complaining. Bring value to your employer every day. Unfortunately, very few of today’s generation understand that.
Touching, if a whitewash of the toxic masculinity that made our post national country so abusive of our most vulnerable. For the productive now a days, keep your head down and do not draw attention of the HR. Any hints of ability just raises the up the dragon of meritocracy, and makes people cry. For the survivors, keep your head down, do the minimum, and have a side hustle.
Also, these productivity numbers do not take into account the underground economy. I notice that the settler Canadians have an advanced ability to survive, and are doing quite nicely with ‘cash only’ and barter transaction.
Absolutely right. I’m 70. I’ve seen that again and again. Those who had parents who rewarded them for merely existing, and who insist(ed) on participation trophies instead of prizes for actual accomplishments, have done those now-adult children a huge disservice.
BTW, Robert: the expression is “chock full,” not “chalk full.”
Surely the expression is “chook fowl”?
Norway, Denmark, Germany, etc. have some of the lowest average annual labour hours of all developed nations, but manage to generate as high or higher labour productivity as the US.
1. Unions
2. excessive numbers of government employees
3. runaway environmentalism
4.substandard primary education, also unions
5. loss of focus on Canada as primarily having a resource extraction economic base
6. subsidizing inefficient businesses for political points
7. safetyism
8. regulatory overload
9.punishing taxes
10. too much reliance on government
11.monetary inflation
12. supply management ie dairy, eggs, broilers
I’m sure to have a few more, but it’s a start
Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Ireland, Austria, Belgium, etc. have some of the highest levels of unionization, largest public sectors, and stringent environmental credentials among OECD nations—more so than even Canada—yet manage to generate labour productivity levels on par with or surpassing the US.
I remember seeing a study somewhere that said scandinavians (multiple generations removed from immigration) in USA had higher than average levels of productivity. Genetic? Can’t find the article now. Maybe my memory is wrong.
Right on.
Not enough manufacturing.
Too many government employees that produce NOTHING.
The “that’s good enough” attitude.
“Ah hell, it’s after 3, let’s just hide in the back corner until 4.” Attitude.
Canada has Third worlders by the millions who don’t speak English or French as their first language, or do speak English or French very poorly.
The ratio of people putting into the system versus people taking out of the system with the latter ever increasing. Get rid of government support programs and lower taxes. Productivity would crash through the roof.
Norway, Denmark, Sweden, etc. all have some of the most comprehensive social programs and tax rates in the world, yet their productivity levels are as high as or higher than that of the US.
more unity of culture. less diversity , all the oars in the water are pulling in the same direction. diversity is not strength
Red and green tape in Canada slow things down enormously. Same as in Australia.
Capital for technological improvement is an issue. The high taxes cut back on the availability of money for newer technologies to improve productivity. That also harms innovation, especially when you sell companies like the old Northen Telecon to the Chinese.
America adopts productivity enhancing technology faster than most any other country partly because most of the tech development occurs in the US.
Chasing “the American Dream” is a real motivating factor particularly for new immigrants (well, it was before the US started just giving handouts to whoever shows up in the country).
The American lifestyle has been engineered to encourage every American to carry a high debt load and Americans scramble to service that debt.
Labor unions are weak in many parts of the US.
Canadians watch too much hockey.
Maple syrup consumption causes severe sugar crashes.
Justin Trudeau is a Canadian.
Most points already covered.
Red and green tape-huge.
Massive public sector which by definition produce nothing-huge.
Taxes impede, discourage or outright forbid capital formation. Capital investment is required for productivity.
Allow me to attempt to summarize…
Canadians are not nearly as industrious as Americans. Americans work until the job is done. Canadians look to find ways to avoid doing the job, because it’s all about the paycheck, and the benefits. That applies particularly to public sector employees.
How’d I do?
…and I didn’t even have to watch the video!
…when nearly 1 in 4 employees in Canada work for the public sector (which is unsustainable in a G7 economy),
…when nearly HALF of all new hires in the last 5 years have been by governments, you get a sense as to why our productivity is so lacking.
Because generally at their core, Canadians are overpaid underworked lazy socialist unionized government loving alcoholic whiny statutory holiday loving commies. This of course does not apply to Canada’s amazing self-employed entrepreneurial class.
Attitude, generally Canada’s work force is left leaning, and left leaners feel more entitled, so are less productive.
Have witnessed this first hand, at many locations.
When looking at a ranked listing of OECD nations by productivity, the countries at the top are either centrist (e.g. Ireland) or decidedly left-leaning (e.g. Norway, Denmark).
…just curious. Where does “decidedly left-leaning” Canada rank in that survey?
Even though Canada’s output is in the neighborhood, I’ll suggest that neither country is anywhere close to the top.
So much for that corollary.
Here’s an OECD chart that on the surface, would dispel your claim…
https://www.oecd.org/en/data/indicators/gdp-per-hour-worked.html
Number one problem – too much government. Too much bureaucracy.
Government regulations, over-regulation on everything. Employment regulations, environmental regulations, business regulations, DEI regulations, we’re being strangled by regulations and they just keep adding more but never rescind any.
Hostile anti-business attitude that guides left wing governments.
“Government isn’t the solution, government is the problem.” – Ronald Reagan.
….cause Canadians are lazy and entitled. When your major GDP generator is real estate…well you have a problem. A major problem. When your have stat holidays every month…some months two…well you have a problem.
When Canadians look at their pay stub after 2 weeks and realise the gov’t is taking far more than they should, they start to not care “just a little bit” so as to get their equity out of that money which is stolen from them.
They remember that on the weekend when their daughter breaks an arm doing somersaults, they had to wait 10 hours in a hospital emergency room while non tax paying new Canadians are in front of them, with translators supplied by the gov’t. Albertans send about $28 Billion to the federal gov’t and only get back about $14 Billion, while the rest of it goes in welfare payments to provinces which hate us and ridicule AB/Sask. every day in their garbage MSM.
I cannot recall the last time I heard of an opinion or program out of Ottawa which I agreed with.
It’s all garbage all the time. Everything they do, they fail at. All their ideas are doomed to fail, the ideas they say will succeed, they’re lying about.
Companies don’t buy as much cutting edge tech as they do in the USA, for reasons similar to any others in other countries where the gov’t opinion on you could change in a moment, and you will be out of business.
About half way through the video, the narrator refers to Ontario as the largest province. Quebec is larger, Ontario has more folks. It somewhat pleases me that the easterners make incorrect assumptions about easterners as well as westerners, a good editor would catch that.
millhand above at 7.30 Pm gives a good summation
To clarify, Quebec is larger in area. Ontario is more populated. I think that’s what the narrator meant when he referred to Ontario as the largest province. He should have said “most populace province.”
Granted, his narration was poorly worded, but it wasn’t entirely inaccurate.
….cause Canadians are lazy and entitled. When your major GDP generator is real estate…well you have a problem. A major problem. When your have stat holidays every month…some months two…well….
American exceptionalism requires one to be of independent mind and abhor dependence on the state. Their culture is based on the idea of limited constrainted government.
Canada was established as a bureaucratic maneuver to keep the establishment in power. This culture was based on limiting the rights of the people by maintaining the state can give and deny natural rights. Naturally this makes the people dependent on the state.
Geez. What a surprise. Blubber Douggie’s reguation-constipated province would have low productivity. Who’d a thunk it?
Ontario was destroyed by the NDP and Liberals. Unfortunately our current premier thinks acting like them (giving away $$) works.
To remain as government you have to cater to everyone with their hands out. Unfortunately the PCs haven’t slapped those hands.
“To remain as government you have to cater to everyone with their hands out.”
Who said that? Trump, Milei, or Bukele?
Productive economies invest in productivity, machinery, training incentives etc.
Lower productive economies invest in bureaucracies and through regulations force producers to invest in bureaucracy. Office building after office building are filled with otherwise productive people filling out forms to fulfil regulations that, in some cases, have lost their purpose.
High tax, high regulated economies cannot achieve productivity and force participants in to do less productive work.
We need the chainsaw guy
When you look at your paycheque and realize that the harder you work, the more the government takes from you, you are far less inclined to bust your ass to get ahead. Especially when you watch your elected leaders lie and piss money away at ever increasing rates with zero accountability.
Let me try:
per capita GDP = (revenue – expenses) / population.
Revenue is generated by primary industries (i.e. mining, forestry, farming, fishing), secondary industries (manufacturing, processing), and tertiary industries (i.e. software development.) Canada has been actively working on shutting down our primary and secondary industries so revenue is decreasing. We’ve also been increasing our population without a corresponding increase in revenue.
So, the people in Canada are in an interesting situation where the pie is getting smaller and more people are taking slices from it. A lower standard of living is a natural outcome.
Keep your eye on Argentina.
If Milei manages to hang in for a couple of more years, we may have the answer.
My answer – too much low skilled immigration from 3rd World countries. This depresses wages – so why bother in investing in efficiency when labour costs are low? How may shawarma or other ethnic restaurants do we need?
Maritimers and peppers?
Just a guess
Perverse Incentives.
Canada is a Kleptocracy.
We tax payers have learnt our lessons well.
Government will steal every piece of wealth they can identify.
So produce just enough and lie to every government minion.
Government has lied to us for well over a century about income tax..
A “temporary measure” to pay for the First World War..
Then they have preached their wisdom of “Taxing Behaviour of which they disapprove”..
AKA Sin Taxes.
Except taxation on overtime proves that they consider working extra as more sinful than cigarettes or booze.
Most all Canadians with the desire to become wealthy,those with get up and go..Moved to the USA long ago.
America = Can Do. It really does. I lived there ten years, and if you want to start a business doing anything, you can. It is possible and even encouraged. You can do it.
Canada = No. No, you can’t get a loan. No, you can’t get permission. No, you’re not allowed to do that. No, you’re not certified. No, you’re not qualified to get certified. No, because SHUT UP and get back in line.
You want to know why Canada’s productivity is for sh t? That’s why.
Not to mention, how hard are people going to work for money that’s not worth anything? The government takes half of it anyway. Better to do the bare minimum and skate by. Nobody cares as long as you’ve got pronouns on your name tag.
I can’t go back and read all the data and formulas.
But.
If three men can produce more than two men and one of them is not on the books it looks like two men doing the work of three.
The higher percentage of US illegals compared to Canada’s could inflate the US’s productivity figures.
You meant chock. Full.
It’s not difficult to identify the problems; coming up with viable solutions is far more challenging. Some contributors have mentioned Javier Millei and his methodology. unfortunately that type of hard austerity is exactly what is needed, and has been needed for decades. I often reference William Gairdner’s excellent book “The Trouble with Canada” and his other masterpiece “The War Against the Family”. Both date back to the early 1980’s, and the first book was often touted by the Conservatives(at the time) as the definitive guide to public policy. Gairdner’s book strongly advocated for smaller government at all levels, and had it been taken seriously would have put Canada in a much better position to weather US tariffs. Sadly the only Canadian politician who has come close to stating policy views similar to what Gairdner wrote was Maxine Bernier.
Thomas Sowell’s famous statement about the first rule of politics is the very definition of Canadian politics and we will become impoverished because of it.
The problem is production, which is greatly affected by the size of government. Total government spending in Canada is 45% of the economy. We were far more productive as a nation when government was much smaller way back before the World Wars, ~5% of national income.
In the 60’s government expenditure exploded and hasn’t really stopped. Government wastes valuable resources, regardless of whether funds are taxed or borrowed. It takes resources out of the hands of productive people and generally squanders about 80 to 85% of what it spends.
Less government means more production, greater supply, and lower prices!