TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — Like many auto workers, Tony Gardull wants to hear how the
candidates for president will help the ailing industry and a
new generation of workers.
"We'll get through this, but I'm worried about
what will happen after me," said Gardull, who has spent
25 years at an assembly plant churning out Jeeps.
Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton are
promising to alter foreign trade agreements and end tax
breaks for companies that close factories and send the jobs overseas.
Sen. John McCain, the Republican nominee-in-waiting, says
more money needs to be spent on training programs for people
who have lost their jobs.
"We're not going to leave any displaced worker
behind when I'm president," he told customers at a
diner in suburban Toledo on Thursday.
Final Senate Vote on NAFTA
McCain (R-AZ), Yea http://www.citizen.org/print_article.cfm?ID=15960
He also says international free trade agreements have created
millions of jobs in America.
http://www.mlive.com/newsflash/michigan/index.ssf?/base/business-15/1203...
The fact is America is now an equal partner on the world stage. We no longer dominate the market place. What seems like a more realistic approach is to fine tune the areas we still have to be more competitive in the market place. Threatening to punish companies that compete over seas is meaningless. Most of America's largest and most successful companies are global in nature no longer just selling to Americans. In fact many companies depend on their off shore markets to keep them competitive in the world markets.
Toledo is a good example of what happens when you pretend the market place is the same as it was forty years ago. It isn't. That is why the same old remedies no longer work. Until we face a crisis like is happening in Michigan we here will muddle along watching our down town area collapse like so many of its buildings.
Technology is the answer not automobiles.
The company I work for is Fortune 200 and now has 55% of its sales outside the U.S. Dems don't get it, there are bigger markets outside the U.S. It makes sense to bring resources closer to these markets. What's messed up is that the U.S. taxes profits made overseas. These taxes are on top of what a company pays to its host country. What if the company I work for begins to make 75% of its sales oversees. Would it make sense to move its headquarters?
... are essentially scams to avoid taxation in all nations. I agree that a production should be taxed ONCE and once only. But these companies are transferring products and wealth in a fraudulent fashion to cheat what taxes it DOES owe under the laws of the nations they're cheating.
The point is, if the tax regime in the target nation is too harsh, the companies should avoid that nation, instead of just going in and then engaging in FRAUD to somehow make up for it.
For some fine details how these frauds are conducted, go and read "Capitalism's Achilles Heel" by Raymond Baker.
I'm getting tired of big business is bad. Point is, build your production close to markets and raw materials. Somehow there is this Twlight Zone concept that we must import the raw materials to export the goods to a foreign market to benefit our union labor.
That is got to be the biggest B.S ever.
The U.S. laborer and city politician need to understand that the world does not evolve around them. This tax penalty on large multi-national U.S. companies is going to backfire some day on the Dems. The dems need to start carrying their own weight. Here's the rub, protect our borders with protectionist tariffs on imports, penalize companies that have facilities overseas, and our entire export economy will tank. Pandora's box was opened years ago. It was opened when unskilled labor was making more than what the consumer was willing to pay.
Where did I say big business is bad?
Raymond Baker in his book has to also defend himself against such an accusation, but does so to make the point he always made:
When you're in business, obey the law.
I said nothing against big business. It's just that big business has no business itself to structure its international transactions solely to escape taxation. That's FRAUD.
I agree that double taxation is bad, and should be stopped wherever it occurs. However, these multinats are largely criminal enterprises and THAT sort of thing has to change as well as our tax code.
In fact, if our tax code was itself simple and enforced, it would be a lot better world for everyone, from the rich to the poor.
... is not the answer if you expect to retain a First World standard of living, which includes sanitation, heat, police/fire protection, pollution controls and the like.
I don't know about you, but I refuse to see America transformed into a sea of hovels in which walled compounds are sprinkled. That's what must happen if you actually believe that America can compete with tiny wages overseas. WAGES are the ultimate indicator of where parity lies, and that's about $1-2 per hour. How many of you can run a household on $4000/year? Shit! For most of you, $4000 doesn't even cover your TAX BILLS for the year ... and all those levels of government will demand the same taxes even after you move into that hovel.
There are too many BILLIONS out there ready to work your job. It's not like they will quickly rise to your level of compensation. So that $1-2 per hour is coming for us ALL.
If we had our due control of corporate wealth (note: wealth that was BUILT HERE, in America, under our guidance and protection!) then none of this would be such a serious issue. So we must regain control of our common wealth before it impoverishes us. The 21st Century is turning out to be an era when the capital gains of the 20th Century will attempt to return the workforce to the 19th Century.