Manufacturing and the service sector : is this distinction out-of-date ?

Are there too many service industries in France and not enough manufacturing industries ? Some people would have us believe this. Perhaps behind their claims, there is a nostalgia for a golden age when steel from the Lorraine region and coal from the northern département of Pas-de-Calais boosted French growth protected from foreign competition. However, in a globalised, competitive world where manufactured products and services very often merge is there any point in continuing to divide these two sectors which are supposedly competitors ? Is our judgment not influenced by our age-old habits, obsolete ideas and methods (now outdated) towards preferring that which is most instantly quantifiable or even most profitable ? Éric Huber, a young engineering graduate from the École des Mines, successfully highlights these contradictions, and the shortcomings of these factors, which may well determine our economic future.