So, are you suggesting that in the areas of social and environmental policy that we all engage in a 'race to the bottm' in order for the US to become the most attractive place to do business? Wouldn't it be better to try and bring the rest of the world up in those areas rather than bring the US down to where they are?
The economic well being of the rest of the world is not our responsibility. It is that of those people's governments to raise their standard of living, or for the people to replace them till they can live a better standard of life. We have no responsibility to make it easier for them to do so on the backs of our children.
And yes, over-regulation, like the EPA's ever increasingly stringent rules and regulations with no cost/benefit analysis required on their part has killed industry in our nation. When's the last time you have heard of a new Steel Mill being built here? Why is that? As someone who's worked for an Iron Foundry before I can flat out tell you there are 3 main reasons why costs to do here are prohibitively high.
1. Pollution regulation. The EPA, with the radical environazis are intent on stopping any manufacturing like this from occuring in this nation again. The amount of lawsuits to stop nuclear power plants, coal power plants, any waste disposal dumps and everything else is insanely high in this nation because of religious zeal of the greens in their anti-human quest, and a good healthy dose of NIMBY.
2. Unions. Union costs are crippling the auto industry with legacy costs, and they're trying to force their way into every aspect of manufacturing and other foundational industries. Why deal with these assholes when you can go to China, India, Taiwan, Vietnam and get workers who will not strike or demand insane wages for essentially non-skilled labor? I'm for the basic protection of abuse by management from labor. I am NOT for them strangling every industry they get in bed with because they want to live the life of millionaires while working as janitors. See the pay scale for a GM custodian if you don't believe me.
3. Punitive taxation. P-BO and his ilk have a crazy notion that all profit is bad. Probably because they've never had to make one to survive before. They've no real world business experience, and therefore seem to have it in their silly little noggins that the University system is how all business should be. So, when they hear about Exxon profiting, they assume they must be stealing. They ignore that profit is reinvested or spread across a billion plus shares making the earnings from them a pittance if anything because they have to struggle to survive as well. On the other hand, they ignore the profit percentage of Hedge Funds which almost skim 80% off the top for their profit, instead of big oil's paltry 10%. Why would you bother to risk your business here when you can go over seas, not risk double taxation and a government who won't punish you for being successful?
These are reasons why business is fleeing this nation. If you want links, be your own research monkey. I know it's out there, I've seen it before.
Oh, horse shit.
Our own past shows that when our prosperity and productivity was at its peak was when our government spent money, regulated, and structured the economy. In fact, our highest economic growth was during the early 1940s when a wartime government virtually managed the economy, and the 1960s at the height of social welfare expansion. (1)
Reagan blamed the deficits on Congress, while 95% of the reason for them was high defense spending and the refusal to raise taxes to pay for them. In 1982 the deficit was 90 billion dollars, and by 1987 they totaled 283 billion dollars. This caused the US to borrow, the borrowing raised interest rates, the higher interest rates attracted foreign capital, causing the dollars value to rise disproportionately to its true value. As the dollar skyrocketed, imports became cheaper than products made by American labor, forcing many American businesses to relocate to third world countries in order to take advantage of more cost effective labor platforms.
<And the right blamed it all on the UNIONS> Meanwhile trade imbalance became disproportionate as foreign markets could not afford American goods at inflated dollar value. (2)
Past efforts at regulatory relief?
Robert Leone contributed information about the regulatory relief effects targeted to auto industries. The auto package was 34 specific regulations actions designed to reduce regulatory costs for the auto industry by $1.4 billion annually. The goals were not met regarding sales or employment, but the industry profits went up due to the industries focus on reducing employment. (3)
And what are the results of regulation relief?
Lash, Gillman, and Sheridan investigated the assault on the Environmental Protection Agency by administration policy, means testing, budget cuts, and the person of EPA Administrator Ann Gorsuch Buford. A Season of Spoils; The Reagan Administration's Attack on the Environment describe the hazards that leaded gasoline posed, and connect the savings regulation reform offered to industry to the physical and neurological damage caused by lax regulation of hazardous waste. (4) This is particularly important, as the rhetoricians of the Reagan Revolution blamed the poor directly for their condition , and considered at least some of their problems inherent to the lower economic classes.
Industry, as of 1983, generates 150 million metric tons of hazardous waste per year. In March of 1981, Vice President Bush, as head of the Regulatory Task Force, targeted for regulatory relief the whole of the EPAs hazardous waste control program. One of Gorsuchs more egregious actions was to indicate to a gas refiner that the EPA would not pursue enforcement of lead levels in gasoline, as the regulation was under review and likely to be reversed. Lead, released, as particulates from automobiles, does not degrade. Exposure to lead particulates is most intense in inner cities, and the ones most vulnerable to exposure are short people, children. One in five children living in urban poverty between 1976-1988 had levels higher than 30 micrograms per decimeter. High levels of lead in childrens blood, 30 micrograms per deciliter, cause lower IQ scores and learning disabilities by induced restlessness and inability to concentrate. (5)
Taxes:
Tax relief offered higher benefits for high-income families, and effectively raised taxes for lower income families. Cuts to benefit programs disproportionately and negatively affect those with lower and reduced incomes. The Tax policy raised buying power only modestly for the middle class, not at all for the poor, and the wealthy experienced the greatest increase.(6)
1. Chafe, William H. The Unfinished Journey : America Since World War II . 4th Edition . New York, New York: Oxford University Press, Inc. , 1986, 1991, 1995, 1999, 475.
2. Ibid, 486-487.
3. The Urban Institute Press. The Reagan Regulatory Strategy. 1st. Edited by George C. Eads and Michael Fix. Washington, DC: The Urban Institute Press, 1984, 8-9.
4.Lash, Jonathan, Katherine Gillman, and David Sheridan. A Season of Spoils; The Reagan Administration's Attack on the Environment. 1st Edition. New York, New York: Random House, 1984, xii, xiv, and 102.
5. Ibid, 27, 131-142.
6. The Urban Institute. The Reagan Experiment. 1st Edition. Edited by Isabel V. Sawhill John L. Palmer. Washington, DC: The Urban Institute Press, 1982, 21-22.
