We could eliminate unemployment and reduce the debt

[Decus]

I actually posted this as a response to a different thread but am struck by how little this mentioned. This is a very real opportunity for the US.

The US has one of the best opportunities to grow employment and investment in the US that would lead to huge employment opportunities and increased tax receipts for the government but our politicians either can't see it or refuse to do it.

Provide some tax incentives and assure the continued production of cheap energy and manufacturing of all kinds would move operations from other parts of the world to be in the US. Is the anti-business sentiment and renewable energy advocates our biggest obstacles to realizing this potential? Why aren't we doing more to attract foreign companies?

"LUDWIGSHAFEN, Germany — The sprawling chemical plant in this city along the Rhine River has been a jewel of Germany’s manufacturing-led economy for more than a century. But the plunging price of natural gas in the United States has European companies setting sail across the Atlantic to stay competitive."

European industry flocks to U.S. to take advantage of cheaper gas - Washington Post

Foreign Firms Tap U.S. Gas Bonanza - WSJ.com

High European energy prices drive BMW to US - FT.com

Low energy prices in US attract datacentre investment at Europe?s expense

 

[Decus]

Bump

 

[pinqy]

Bump

Re-read your post. Your title says we could eliminate unemployment and reduce the debt, but you don't give any proposal on how to do that .

 

[Billo_Really]

Cut the defense budget in half and use the money to rebuild our infrastructure.

Offer tax incentives for companies to manufacture in the US and penalize company's manufacturing in other country's and selling their products here.

 

[Decus]

Bump

Re-read your post. Your title says we could eliminate unemployment and reduce the debt, but you don't give any proposal on how to do that .

Sorry if I wasn't clear. Attracting manufacturers from all over the world to establish plants would create direct employment in those companies and additional business opportunities in the support services needed.

If you read the linked articles, cheap energy presently available in the US (largely because of fracking) is the reason that billions are being invested in new manufacturing facilities in the US. Add some tax incentive to the equation and you have a strong draw for manufacturers to return to the US.

 

[Decus]

Cut the defense budget in half and use the money to rebuild our infrastructure.

Offer tax incentives for companies to manufacture in the US and penalize company's manufacturing in other country's and selling their products here.

And you don't think that the EU and other regions and countries aren't offering tax incentives. Too funny.

 

[Montecresto]

Cut the defense budget in half and use the money to rebuild our infrastructure.

Offer tax incentives for companies to manufacture in the US and penalize company's manufacturing in other country's and selling their products here.

Cutting the offence budget would be great, except that like so many others, it too is too big to fail. Unemployment would sore.

 

[Ernie S.]

Cut the defense budget in half and use the money to rebuild our infrastructure.

Offer tax incentives for companies to manufacture in the US and penalize company's manufacturing in other country's and selling their products here.

Cut entitlements to levels allowed by the Constitution and we can double the defense budget AND rebuild our infrastructure.

 

[OriginalShroom]

Cut the defense budget in half and use the money to rebuild our infrastructure.

Offer tax incentives for companies to manufacture in the US and penalize company's manufacturing in other country's and selling their products here.

Tell you want..

Have Congress fund only the items enumerated in the Consitutiton as being the responsibility of the Federal Government and we would be in good shape.

Without looking again, I believe there were 21 items listed as being the Responsibilty of the Federal Government.. everything else was to be left to the States and the People.

Edit...

I went back and looked.. There are 17 areas..

U.S. Constitution - Article 1 Section 8

Article 1 - The Legislative Branch

Section 8 - Powers of Congress

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

To borrow money on the credit of the United States;

To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;

To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;

To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;

To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;

To establish Post Offices and Post Roads;

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;

To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;

To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offenses against the Law of Nations;

To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

To provide and maintain a Navy;To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings; And

To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

 

[Billo_Really]

Tell you want..

Have Congress fund only the items enumerated in the Consitutiton as being the responsibility of the Federal Government and we would be in good shape.

Without looking again, I believe there were 21 items listed as being the Responsibilty of the Federal Government.. everything else was to be left to the States and the People.

Congress job is to ensure the general welfare of the country.

They need to do whatever it takes to make that happen.

 

[BreezeWood]

We could (can) eliminate unemployment and reduce the debt


simply repeal the 2003 Republican tax cut for income above 250K ...

.

 

[Billo_Really]

Cut entitlements to levels allowed by the Constitution and we can double the defense budget AND rebuild our infrastructure.

Cut entitlements to defense contractors.


The defense budget is obscene.

 

[Billo_Really]

Cutting the offence budget would be great, except that like so many others, it too is too big to fail. Unemployment would sore.

You think paying the Taliban to guard our convoy's out to remote outposts is money well spent?

You think paying over $4 trillion US taxpayer dollars for this bullshit Iraq war and getting nothing in return, is money well spent?

 

[Billo_Really]

And you don't think that the EU and other regions and countries aren't offering tax incentives. Too funny.

We should offer more.

 

[pinqy]

Bump

Re-read your post. Your title says we could eliminate unemployment and reduce the debt, but you don't give any proposal on how to do that .

Sorry if I wasn't clear. Attracting manufacturers from all over the world to establish plants would create direct employment in those companies and additional business opportunities in the support services needed.

Why do you think they're not already being attracted or what do you think is currently keeping them away? And why do you consider foreign manufacturers more desirable than domestic? And why do you think attracting more foreign manufacturers by itself would be enough to eliminate unemployment? And how on earth could more manufacturing help with structural unemployment?

[If you read the linked articles, cheap energy presently available in the US (largely because of fracking) is the reason that billions are being invested in new manufacturing facilities in the US. Add some tax incentive to the equation and you have a strong draw for manufacturers to return to the US.[/QUOTE] But you still haven't shown how that would eliminate unemployment or reduce the debt.

 

[Ernie S.]

Tell you want..

Have Congress fund only the items enumerated in the Consitutiton as being the responsibility of the Federal Government and we would be in good shape.

Without looking again, I believe there were 21 items listed as being the Responsibilty of the Federal Government.. everything else was to be left to the States and the People.

Congress job is to ensure the general welfare of the country.

They need to do whatever it takes to make that happen.

General welfare does not mean giving you free food and birth control.

 

[Ernie S.]

Cut entitlements to levels allowed by the Constitution and we can double the defense budget AND rebuild our infrastructure.

Cut entitlements to defense contractors.


The defense budget is obscene.

I agree that it is obscene. There is tons of fat that does little to defend our country, but national defense is one of those pesky enumerated powers granted Congress by the Constitution. Abortion on demand seems to be missing, at least in my copy.

 

[Londoner]

We would need to give corporations 3rd world labor costs.

Walmart and Nike get their products made by workers making $5/day. The reason these workers make so little is because they live in freedom hating nations beneath brutal dictators. The American Private Sector loves the ultra cheap labor they get from these dictators. We keep these dictators in business. The biggest threat to capitalism is when an educated, freedom loving middle class sprouts up near one of their supply chains. This drives up labor costs. The point of the global market system is to ensure that all the world's Capital has access to cheap labor.

My sense is that Capital (business/investors) will eventually be successful in creating an ultra-low wage system in the USA. This was Reagan's goal, who believed that the USA wage system had, because of the postwar union-loving Liberals, become too expensive for business. FYI: Reagan was quite successful at lowering middle class wages so American businesses made higher profits. As benefits were cut and wages remained stagnant or decreased (and part time jobs became the norm), the Reagan Revolution had to transition middle class consumption to credit. So, starting in the 80s American families started accumulating unprecedented debt in order to keep pace.

We moved manufacturing to China so our capitalists could make higher profits off cheaper labor, then we financialized the U.S. economy so we could create a powerful credit industry so workers with falling wages and disappearing jobs could keep consuming (and sustain the U.S. economy).

Unfortunately, the Reagan Model - cheap labor for business & more credit for workers - blew up.

We finally ran out of borrowing capacity. (Our middle class could only borrow so much before families became too strapped) It got so bad we started loaning money to non-credit-worthy borrowers. For years we did anything and everything to loan money into our dying economy on the backs of anyone who would borrow. This problem reached its apex with the radical expansion of housing under Bush. (It's funny that people still don't understand how deeply Bush was involved in the expansion of housing to the poor. People don't get it. The middle class was tapped, so we needed to find more fools to lend to so they could stimulate the economy. Watch this [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNqQx7sjoS8"]video[/ame] to understand how Bush did it.)

Now we have the most indebted citizenship in world history. We have reached a historical moment where Americans cannot borrow enough to meet the demand requirements of economic growth. This is why the economy is stalled - not because business doesn't have the cash to invest, but because they lack consumers. This means that much of our investment class now must make money by inflating bubbles and profiting off assets which have been artificially inflated.

Problem is, if we reproduce 3rd world labor in the USA (in order to increase the profits of business), we will be fucked on the demand side. Workers making 10$/day can't consume enough to keep our domestic consumption economy afloat.

Welcome to the final stage of Reaganomics. It starts with an aggressive expansion of credit (debt) in order to make up for the money that never trickled down to consumers. Then, it ends with an economy that must be kept alive with ever more dangerous bubbles because the consumers are too indebted to sustain consumption in normal markets.

America got rid of expensive Labor, then credit ran its course, and now we don't have enough solvent consumers left. So what's the answer? Even cheaper labor, so business returns. But ask you - why would business return without consumers.

Game over.

 

[Harry Dresden]

Cut the defense budget in half and use the money to rebuild our infrastructure.

Offer tax incentives for companies to manufacture in the US and penalize company's manufacturing in other country's and selling their products here.

i cant argue with that....but yet i dont see any of our exalted "leaders" pushing this....

 

[Harry Dresden]

Tell you want..

Have Congress fund only the items enumerated in the Consitutiton as being the responsibility of the Federal Government and we would be in good shape.

Without looking again, I believe there were 21 items listed as being the Responsibilty of the Federal Government.. everything else was to be left to the States and the People.

Congress job is to ensure the general welfare of the country.

They need to do whatever it takes to make that happen.

in order to do that they would have to be thinking of the Country first.....