According to RT, on August 10, Serbian President Vučić said: "As Europeans, we are falling behind. The reason we are falling behind is that our working hours are fewer than those of the Chinese and Americans."

Vučić added: "The situation in China is entirely different. In Europe, we all enjoy life—Serbia is no exception. We indulge in leisure, take two long vacations each year, go on about 15 short city trips annually, and fantasize about free lunches from the sky—believing we can still keep up with the U.S. and China without falling behind."

Vučić candidly stated, "If Europe wants to catch up, it must work harder and increase its labor input."

This statement essentially uses the surface-level metric of "working hours" to reveal a deeper systemic crisis—the declining competitiveness of Europe amid dramatic shifts in the global industrial landscape. Its core logic is that the model of 'high welfare, low efficiency, short working hours' can no longer sustain Europe's current standard of living. It serves as a warning from an outsider’s perspective: 'Laziness leads to decline.'

By attributing Europe’s lagging status to 'fewer working hours compared to China and the U.S.', Vučić is not simply calling for people to work more. Instead, he points to a deeper structural issue: Europe’s productivity growth can no longer match its living standards.

Currently, the European reality is this: France mandates a 35-hour workweek, Germany averages around 33 hours, and the Netherlands sees just 31.9 hours per person per week; having 30–40 days of paid annual leave is standard, and entire Europe seems empty during July and August. Even so, some countries have proposed legislation for a three-day workweek.

Contrast with China and the U.S.: Chinese manufacturing workers and tech professionals generally work far longer hours than their European counterparts; while the U.S. also emphasizes work-life balance, it invests significantly more intensity in core sectors such as technology and finance than Europe does.

Vučić uses the most straightforward indicator—working hours—to expose a truth many Europeans avoid facing: when your competitors are more determined, focused, and driven, a lifestyle based on "lying back and eating the meat" is inevitably unsustainable.

The "enjoyment of life" criticized by Vučić is, fundamentally, the high-welfare social model established in Europe after World War II. This system functioned well for decades because Europe sat atop the global industrial chain, sustaining high income, consumption, and welfare through technological superiority and brand premium. But the foundation of this model is now being eroded:

  • Industrial hollowing out
  • Soaring energy costs
  • Slowing innovation pace
  • Population aging

All of these factors threaten Europe’s high-welfare system.

The essence of Vučić’s remarks is a "truthful but unwelcome" message from an outsider. He isn’t blaming Europeans for being lazy. Rather, he is warning: when a civilization becomes accustomed to maintaining its present dignity through past glories, when an entire continent takes “enjoying life” for granted and forgets that sustaining such a life requires continuous struggle and innovation, decline is no longer a question of ‘if,’ but only of ‘how fast.’ That line about ‘fantasizing about pies falling from the sky’ offers the most accurate portrait of Europe—not laziness, but self-deception.

Original source: toutiao.com/article/1873149373110282/

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author.