Fundamentally, American society is composed of individuals who don't go out of their way to do each other favours.

The problem of how we finance the welfare state should not obscure a separate issue: if each person thinks he has an inalienable right to welfare, no matter what happens to the world, that's not equity, it's just creating a society where you can't ask anything of people.

The European model is in danger if we obliterate the principle of personal responsibility.

If you don't have collective agreements between unions and employers, governments have to legislate more.

I cannot resign myself to the decline of Europe, and of France.

My problem is how to find the best way of being useful.

The unions still have a job to do, representing their members' interests to governments and parliaments. And I think collective agreements still have a role, alongside markets and laws.