Americans Lead the World in Productivity

On Monday, the U.N. released a report which announced that the United States “leads the world in labor productivity.” Thank you Captain Obvious!

While the complement certainly is nice, it’s also good to remember that the U.S. is largely funded by tax dollars which are extracted by force from those very same American workers.

Smarter AND Harder

Americans put in more hours and work and we accomplish more than our competitors with every hour we work.

Technically, we placed slightly behind the Norwegians for the amount of wealth we produce per hour. However, Norway’s figures are artificially inflated due to their huge oil wealth. If you separate out productivity due to dinosaurs who died millions of years ago, Americans are the most productive workers — per hour — on the the planet.

In numerical terms, the average American contributes $35.63 to the GNP (Gross National Product) for every hour they work. That adds up to $63,885 of productivity per year.

Americans devote an average of 1,804 hours of work per year. Our propensity for working harder, along with our ability to work smarter, makes us the most productive people on Earth.

Sure, the average Chinese put in 2,200 hours of work a year — but their productivity is still less than a sixth of ours - $9,817 per person per year. Why? We work with freedom and they work under bureaucracy!

You can download the entire report from the UN’s International Labor Organization.