When American experts began making ‘helpful’ suggestions about how the French could ‘increase productivity and profits,’ the average Frenchman would shrug, as if to say: ‘These notions of yours are all very fascinating, no doubt, but we have a nice little business here just as it is. Everybody makes a decent living. Nobody has ulcers. I have time to work on my monograph of Balzac, and my foreman enjoys his espaliered pear trees. I think, as a matter of fact, we do not wish to make these changes that you suggest.