05-15-2019, 02:48 PM
(05-15-2019, 02:17 PM)Benton Wrote: Somewhere between my over simplification and your... concerning... under simplification (I mean really, it's not that dramatic) is the reality of it. Which, honestly, isn't the same reality for any one company or any one industry.
As to my example, no that wasn't in reference to the tariff, only your comment that manufacturing jobs aren't coming back. Tariffs can assist with it, if, like I said, there's an incentive for companies. The current method of giving them tax breaks to leave isn't working.
As far as foreign market workers, it's already happening. Chinese workers are demanding better conditions and wages and it's putting the government in a difficult spot, as they can't subsidize labor forever. So companies are already moving to other Asian and African countries. But the end of the day, they still need somewhere to sell their stuff. Right now, that's here. We buy stuff. We buy huge volumes of stuff. That stuff buying gives us some leverage to push companies into where they locate their workforce. It's time we started using that leverage instead of just saying "Oh no, it's all over!"
You tried to claim that the "easy" fix was taxing companies who have more than 70% of their non executive workforce outside the U.S. differently. I then explained that the biggest culprits employ the majority of their employees in this country. You then amended your "easy" fix to 70% of "production" to outsourced labor. I then explained what contracted manufacturing is which means that they aren't actually the ones producing it rather they are selling what is essentially a finished product. If you try to go after contracted manufacturing your splash damages to companies large and small who aren't the "enemy" here will be huge. What this kind of shows is that it isn't really an "easy" fix.
After all of this you are now wanting to act as if I am over complicating it when the reality is that it is a VERY complex issue with the potential for detrimental splash damage created by legislation that doesn't understand supply chain and manufacturing. This also disregards that there is more to business than "tax breaks" and using the wide sweeping assumption that is how all businesses stay competitive without recognizing that the labor cost benefits of outsourcing at scale will most likely beat these tax loopholes companies are supposedly salivating over. The truth is there are a few offenders who play in manufacturing that see great benefits from tax advantages, but for majority taxing doesn't overcome the wage disparity especially when you look past wage to the hidden costs of employment in the U.S.
