For youngsters that weren't around when things were much different, here's a little economic history.
In the 50's and 60's, most foreign goods cost much more in the US than they did in many other places worldwide. I remember buying Noritake china and stereo gear in the PX overseas for pennies on the dollar. The reason was primarily due to no taxes at all on products bought there and at the time, we tariffed the hell out of foreign goods so that our US produced goods could compete on price. Worked very well and we saw our US companies staying here and hiring us, and they grew and made good profits.
Then came the globalization push. Reduce or eliminate the tariffs, open up the markets and so forth. What we found was that capital has no loyalty as company after company started making shifts in how they did business. Pushing mfg offshore became a very good way to increase profits, many foreign locales that had been considered too unstable to invest in suddenly became more acceptable and other economic pressures and we were on a roll to reduce the US mfg'd goods to also rans. And in no small way, the gov't offered all sorts of incentives, tax write-offs, and other things to encourage that to happen. That is still going on now.
Globalization really only benefits the corporations and not the general populace. Yes, we got cheaper goods to buy so our income would stretch further. But as time went by, we as workers found our wages stagnating and suddenly those cheap goods are oft times out of reach. But during all of this, the upper corp mgmt got greedier and started demanding and getting pay and bonuses way out of line with what had been the norm, widening the gap between the workers and management.
And now, here we are today.
Now we can't unring the economic bell, but we can and should be offering tax benefits to companies that stay here and reduce dramatically the tax benefits to those that want to move jobs away. That would allow US produced goods to compete better on a price basis. GE & now Apple appear to be making that move for the product lines that it makes sense for. Hopefully some others will soon follow suit.
In the 50's and 60's, most foreign goods cost much more in the US than they did in many other places worldwide. I remember buying Noritake china and stereo gear in the PX overseas for pennies on the dollar. The reason was primarily due to no taxes at all on products bought there and at the time, we tariffed the hell out of foreign goods so that our US produced goods could compete on price. Worked very well and we saw our US companies staying here and hiring us, and they grew and made good profits.
Then came the globalization push. Reduce or eliminate the tariffs, open up the markets and so forth. What we found was that capital has no loyalty as company after company started making shifts in how they did business. Pushing mfg offshore became a very good way to increase profits, many foreign locales that had been considered too unstable to invest in suddenly became more acceptable and other economic pressures and we were on a roll to reduce the US mfg'd goods to also rans. And in no small way, the gov't offered all sorts of incentives, tax write-offs, and other things to encourage that to happen. That is still going on now.
Globalization really only benefits the corporations and not the general populace. Yes, we got cheaper goods to buy so our income would stretch further. But as time went by, we as workers found our wages stagnating and suddenly those cheap goods are oft times out of reach. But during all of this, the upper corp mgmt got greedier and started demanding and getting pay and bonuses way out of line with what had been the norm, widening the gap between the workers and management.
And now, here we are today.
Now we can't unring the economic bell, but we can and should be offering tax benefits to companies that stay here and reduce dramatically the tax benefits to those that want to move jobs away. That would allow US produced goods to compete better on a price basis. GE & now Apple appear to be making that move for the product lines that it makes sense for. Hopefully some others will soon follow suit.
