Vive Maurice!
Maurice Taylor, that is. Taylor is CEO of Titan International, a global US wheel-and-tire company.
Recently, the French government approached Taylor about taking over a troubled tire factory. In a public letter to France’s minister of industry, Taylor said his company would be “stupid” to agree.
Taylor explained his reason this way: “The French workforce gets paid high wages but works only three hours. They get one hour for breaks and lunch, talk for three and work for three.” He added that when he said as much to the factory workers in question, they defended this arrangement as “the French way.”
In a less covered line, Taylor also said that “the US government is not much better than the French.” He might have been thinking about New York: Though the Empire State has not yet achieved French levels of government intrusion, Albany helped New York rank dead last in a Tax Foundation review of business-friendly states. (New Jersey clocks in at 49).
Taylor’s comments about how insular politicians are ignoring the reality of competition should have particular resonance here. It comes at a time when city and state politicians are trying, respectively, to pass new laws mandating up to nine days of paid sick leave and jacking up the minimum wage.
It strikes us that the “New York way” looks uncomfortably like “the French way.”
Taylor’s letter was aimed at getting French politicos to look at what their system says to folks with the “money and talent” to invest. Pardon our French, but we could use some of that same language here.