Next question — why are car companies moving from Michigan and California to places like Tennessee, Alabama or ( most recently in the case of Toyota ), Texas?
And the next step is from Tennessee, Alabama, Texas, etc. to overseas. It is not only tax friendliness but low labor costs and right to work laws that motivate companies to move to the South. Certainly, it makes good business sense for foreign car companies to move their assembly plants to the US.
The problem with globalization and free trade is that the US is not playing on an even playing field. We don't have the same access to these other countries' domestic markets. There is disguised protectionism from these countries including the EU with its agricultural products.
And in the US, government at all levels controls 40% of GDP. Government decides winners and losers. Crony capitalism abounds. Is it any wonder that big business and Wall Street contribute more to the Democrats than the Reps? The taxpayer is helping to bail out the banks too big to fail. Multinationals have no allegiance to the US--even those founded here. And they are behind the effort to bring in more foreign workers to depress wages and take American jobs. In the process they are destroying the country.
RE: And what about labor costs? We can’t compete against the Third World. And there are some regulations that won’t be changed, e.g., child labor, minimum wage, environmental laws, etc.
Let me try to understand your policy.
America should create laws that:
1) Outlaw companies that do businesses in the Third world where their labor laws don’t meet our standards
2) TAX products that come to the United States by the same percent our goods are being taxed when we export to these countries.
That will bring jobs back to the USA and increase hiring for our college grads?