The only possible political choice is to distribute productivity gains: The example of France

A country cannot distribute more income than it generates. The only political choice can be to distribute productivity gains. We will take the example of France and show how the increase in hourly labour productivity has been distributed between: An increase in corporate profitability, which hopefully will increase investment and employment at a later stage; An increase in per capita wages; A reduction in the working time. In France we see that the distribution of productivity gains has been completely in favour of wage earners: reduction in working time and faster rise in per capita wages than in per capita productivity. French corporate earnings should therefore have fallen, but they have been sustained by the fall in the interest they have paid on their deb t.