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Originally Posted by rhetorical
A nice rant by MS, but it fails to address the real issue of creating wealth. Apart from a sentence or two about bringing jobs back home due to lack of taxes. It won't work. It is a big and dangerous world out there and a lot of knives out for America. On the flip side, there is a huge desire to get the US economy back on track to regain prosperity. Americans have become lazy and were living beyond their means. Kind of like a lot of porn guys. Now its time to pay.
Iraq was the number one biggest economic and social disaster in the history of America. It changed history and exposed the weak underbelly of the US economy and more importantly the US military. It has emboldened Russia as was witnessed in Georgia. China has risen from a third rate overpopulated country to an economic powerhouse that owns huge amounts of America. They sucker punched America economically. They are devious beyond belief. India is now a nuclear and power and a force to be reckoned with in space. Wow. Who would have thunk this in 1998? Just ten short years.
What to do? Export or die. Importing cheap goods is sucking the lifeblood out of all of us. Consume fewer imported goods. Make a conscious effort to buy less junk until we can produce the junk and even export the junk.
When I say we, I do mean Canada and the US. We are the largest trading bloc in the world. Between our two countries we are nearly self sufficient in energy and food production. This partnership needs to be addressed, fine tuned and bureaucracy demolished. We have common pollution and food issues that need to be addressed. We are locked in a power grid that is fragile and needs protection. The list goes on. Nafta works pretty well, but I have yet to see what Mexico contributes to this apart from a big market for Wal mart which in turn just sells them Chinese made goods.
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I agree with you on production of goods, imports versus exports, etc. I just disagree on how to get there.
It's all about the jobs and who does the labor, and the costs involved.
Labor costs in the U.S. for simple menial manufacturing tasks are driven artificially high. You can thank unions for a lot of that, especially in automotive, textiles, etc. But we just put a very pro-labor, pro-union, liberal Democrat in office. Unions ensure you'll overpay for your labor.
Then there's taxes. The uninformed who do not run a business think an employee making $30K a year costs $30K a year. Wrong. Taxes, FICA, etc it all piles on.
Skilled jobs are leaving for same reasons. Forget the offshoring non-sense of adult. Look at real I.T. jobs. In most areas of the U.S. an IT Professional is going to go for $60K-120K depending on skill set, experience, etc. That's before taxes and bennies. To hire the best and brightest right now you need to add another 40% on top of that to cover the bennies and taxes.
Meanwhile, many Fortune 100 companies are sending tens of thousands of IT jobs to india. Typical costs for a mid-range IT Professional offshore? $30 an hour all inclusive. You dont have to provide desk space, computer, anything, you pay the outsourcing company $30 a year, tell 'em skill set you need. And you've got it. They're well educated and do good work as long as you can spec things well....not so good in the area of "thinking outside the box".
You gotta make the companies want to bring those jobs back here. Obama's idea? Tax companies who offshore. All that does is drive the entire company offshore.
Want a growth business for 2010? Staffing companies. If Obama executes his plan, you're not going to want employees, you're going to want to outsource as much as you can and make all of that overhead someone else's problem.