Oh, dear. I wake up to see that my colleague Bret Stephens is bashing France. The French do have problems. But their biggest economic disease is hypochondria 1/ nytimes.com/2019/12/06/opi…
Yes, French GDP has grown more slowly than GDP here. Much of that is slower population growth. And you do need to ask, growth for whom. Most French live *better* than their US counterparts 2/ voxeu.org/article/econom… 
The French are *more* likely than Americans to have jobs during their prime working years 3/
And they live longer than we do — a gap that has grown a lot over time 4/
Oh, and the main reason their GDP per capita is lower than ours is that they take much more vacation. If all that sounds to you like a socialist hellhole, well, I guess you're entitled to your opinion. 5/
