How has France been able to avoid modernising its economy so far?

France is still now characterised by weak innovation and corporate modernisation and a low level of labour force skills. How has it been able to weather this lack of modernisation of its economy so far ? By offsetting the small increases in real wages caused by low labour productivity by using fiscal deficits, by increasing spending on welfare transfers; By offsetting the decline in manufacturing employment by job creation in low-end services; By offsetting the deterioration in foreign trade in industrial products by a foreign trade surplus in services, for example tourism , and by accumulating external debt. These "strategies" to offset the insufficient modernisation of the French economy cannot be extended indefinitely , even though they are still being used now . There is a limit to the public debt, to the fall in the level of sophistication of jobs, and to the external debt. In France, there will therefore either be a rapid modernisation of the economy or impoverishment since these "strategies" can no longer be used, and since there will therefore be a weakening of purchasing power, job losses and a need to balance foreign trade, and therefore a contraction in domestic demand.