Titan CEO Maurice Taylor Gets Into Conflict With the French For No Apparent Reason

Well No Reason Other than to Pontificate in the Press

For reasons somewhat unknown a previously unknown CEO named Maurice Taylor has decided to openly impugn and insult the French.  Seeking to purchase a French  factory, Mr. Taylor ultimately declined, citing the lack of work ethic and other labor problems at the factory in particular in and in France in general. He then got into a public shouting match with a member of the French government.

Maurice Taylor - chief executive of Titan International - had alreadyincensed the French once this week by saying the country's “so-called” workers put in “three hours a day” with the rest spent eating and talking.

Industry minister Arnaud Montebourg hit back in a written response in which he told Mr Taylor his comments were “extremist and insulting” and displayed “a perfect ignorance of what our country is about”.

Not smart enough to leave well enough alone, Mr. Taylor has again responded in the tones of what used to be, and maybe still is, called the Ugly American.

Mr Taylor has today responded: "You letter shows the extent to which your political class is out of touch with [real] world problems”.

"You call me an extremist, but most businessmen would agree that I must be nuts to have the idea to spend millions of US dollars to buy a tyre factory in France paying some of the highest wages in the world."

Now Mr. Taylor’s complaint with France is, to put it in objective terms, the fact that in France productivity is low and the labor markets make it difficult to do business in France.  Ok, that may well be true.  But the proper response by people like Mr. Taylor is to simply shut up and not do business there.   Instead Mr. Taylor somehow thinks it is his duty to publically defame the entire country.  How is that helpful?

France is a democracy.  If its citizens choose, unwisely as it may be, to have an excessive public sector, a low productivity workforce and highly protective labor laws, so be it.  They are the ones who have to live with the results, ie, a lower standard of living.  As for Mr. Taylor, just because you are a highly compensated CEO that doesn’t give you the right to pass judgment on other people’s lives.  Oh, maybe in your mind it does, after all that is the entitlement attitude of the wealthy these days.