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The Economic Stupidity of the Carrier Bailout
National Review ^ | December 2, 2016 | Kevin D. Williamson

Posted on 12/02/2016 3:09:18 PM PST by EveningStar

One particularly tough and indigestible nugget of talk-radio stupidity afflicting the guts of conservatism is the idea that there is some sort of fundamental difference between bribing a business with tax cuts and bribing it with a wheelbarrow full of cash. The Trump-Pence bailout of Carrier’s operations in Indiana provides an illustrative case...

Republicans might have had a little bit of a point in the question of general tax cuts: A tax cut and spending are different things, even if the budgetary effects are exactly the same.

But in the matter of industry-specific or firm-specific tax benefits of the sort extended to Carrier in Indiana, they do not have a leg to stand on. These are straight-up corporate welfare, ethically and fiscally indistinguishable from shipping containers full of $100 bills...

(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Editorial; Mexico; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Indiana
KEYWORDS: bailout; carrier; carrierbailout; corporatewelfare; freetraitorsite; kevindwilliamson; nationalreview; pence; trump
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To: Blood of Tyrants; Liz
These kinds of analyses are so transparent. The so-called economists who advocate outsourcing are purposely overlooking the potential for domestic technological investment. And why do they take this position? Because they're paid to have an opinion that conveniently supports the least path of resistance.

Here's the real deal: Enforcing tariffs and encouraging US manufacturing will FORCE investment in robotics and other related technologies. Manufacturers like Carrier (UTI) will have to focus on cost substitution to improve efficiencies in order to maintain an affordable price point for their products.

Does anyone really think 1,000 workers will continue to work as they have in the past when comparable assembly skills can be acquired south-of-the-border? No, of course not. Rather, those 1,000 workers will be forced to develop addition skills & knowledge to assemble for complicated robots that will then assemble less challenging air conditioners.

For some reason, this line of reasoning is rarely broached. A big part is the controlled narrative that it's easier to simply shift the same-old, same-old to a lower cost region. That's no long-term solution, as we've all seen over the last 8 years.

The proper solution is to encourage innovation, investment and domestic skill improvement (training) as a means to support the national social contract. This is Trumpism in a nutshell.

41 posted on 12/02/2016 3:54:30 PM PST by semantic
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To: Blood of Tyrants

Yes he did. And this is what is required to kick start our economy.

Let’s hope he can get it done. He’ll need our help in holding our Congress people to account.


42 posted on 12/02/2016 3:58:52 PM PST by Lorianne
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To: Lorianne

As another freeper said. ..Trump is not President...he’s still a private citizen...he helped a state, yes...but I believe it wasn’t that different than what happens in States all the time.


43 posted on 12/02/2016 4:01:39 PM PST by goodnesswins (Say hello to President Trump)
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To: EveningStar

total nonsense...Indiana will spend 400,000,000 and gain 2,500,000,000....and 1,000 people will be able to keep their jobs and NOT GO ON WELFARE.


44 posted on 12/02/2016 4:02:25 PM PST by terycarl (COMMON SENSE PREVAILS OVERALL!!!!)
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To: Lorianne
Shouldn’t every business get the same tax cuts, not just ones threatening to move their business to a different country?

did every business get a ton of federal dollars when Obama theoretically bailed out G.M. and Chrysler.....I don't think so.

45 posted on 12/02/2016 4:06:06 PM PST by terycarl (COMMON SENSE PREVAILS OVERALL!!!!)
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To: EveningStar

Please, somebody translate this for me...boring AND I’m not a financial/business minded person.


46 posted on 12/02/2016 4:07:18 PM PST by Paved Paradise
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To: semantic

I guess the optics is the thing Trump is counting on....not the economic realities you outlined.


47 posted on 12/02/2016 4:08:47 PM PST by Liz
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To: BigEdLB

“NRO can’t get over Trump winning in spite of their sabotage.”


It’s not just National Review that opposes deals such as what allegedly was offered to Carrier:

http://www.youngcons.com/sarah-palin-but-wait-the-good-guys-wont-win-with-more-crony-capitalism/


48 posted on 12/02/2016 4:10:31 PM PST by AuH2ORepublican (If a politician won't protect innocent babies, what makes you think that he'll defend your rights?)
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To: i_robot73
>Shouldn’t every business get the same tax cuts, not just ones threatening to move their business to a different country? BINGO! Glad to see not everyone has the (R) knee-pads ready and waiting when “we win”.

NO....they should ask, if we were in the same position, would the state come to our aid.

49 posted on 12/02/2016 4:10:43 PM PST by terycarl (COMMON SENSE PREVAILS OVERALL!!!!)
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To: terycarl

Two wrongs don’t make a right.


50 posted on 12/02/2016 4:11:45 PM PST by Lorianne
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To: EveningStar

Shows the level of urgency for a massive recovery the private sectors needs,

or Trump doing what he could short-term,

he can’t pass laws or deregulate anything as President-Elect.


51 posted on 12/02/2016 4:18:50 PM PST by Son House (The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009; the Original Legislative Fraud.)
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To: EveningStar
Isn't rather difficult (if not impossible) to make a full throated criticism without first knowing the the facts ?

This must be why the article reads more like a drunken rant than an scholarly analysis...

52 posted on 12/02/2016 4:20:50 PM PST by SecondAmendment (Restoring our Republic at 9.8357x10^8 FPS)
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To: dirtboy

The jobs don’t exist in a vacuum. Each manufacturing job supports 2.2 other jobs. So that 1000 jobs saved turns into about 3200 jobs....


53 posted on 12/02/2016 4:21:54 PM PST by Kozak (ALLAH AKBAR = HEIL HITLER)
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To: Wizdum

“Does this idiot even realize the difference is letting the company keep money to invest over a period of years, instead of getting a handout that hurts everyone, and is limited in nature?”

Considering that he thinks you need a shipping container to hold seven million dollars, I’m guessing he doesn’t.


54 posted on 12/02/2016 4:22:45 PM PST by dsc (Any attempt to move a government to the left is a crime against humanity.)
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To: 353FMG
I don’t know if it is a bailout — all I know is that there are 1000 families who will have the merriest of Christmases in their lives. I should know; I have a son (engineer) who has been out of work since March and I can feel the agony he has suffered. To us, Christmas is not a pleasant holiday. Hopefully Mr. Trump will do something to enhance the situation in the oil industry without having to arrange a direct bailout.
Dear God, MAGA please.

First hand klnowledge here. I was laid-off two years ago December 14th. I can tell you it is not pleasant to be canned a couple of weeks before Christmas.

I had a great package so I just decided to retire. There was actually four major payouts, severance, bonus, an old pension that I rolled into the 401k and the tax rebate. Not major wealth but all my debt was already paid off. Without the layoff I would still be working with no thought of retiring any time soon.

55 posted on 12/02/2016 4:24:04 PM PST by higgmeister ( In the Shadow of The Big Chicken! - vote Trump 2016)
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To: ExGeeEye

“Here’s the difference: with tax cuts, it’s the company’s money to begin with! The Government is merely agreeing to stop confiscating so much of it”. ....yes! When Tennessee does their ‘tax-free’ shopping weekend, the media complains how much the state loses by doing this! I shout at the tv, it is NOT the state’s money to begin with!!!


56 posted on 12/02/2016 4:36:43 PM PST by LYDIAONTARIO
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To: EveningStar

NR is bitter, like the Clinton supporters they are.


57 posted on 12/02/2016 4:45:53 PM PST by ozzymandus
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To: Liz
I disagree - go back and listen to his speeches. Heck, just review his rally in Cincinnati yesterday.

He specifically says that outsourcing and other globalist initiatives are not inevitable ie they are not a force of nature, but artificial, man-made constructs.

He also goes on to say that there's no limit to human ingenuity, that we can literally invent/conjure the future we want given the appropriate chances.

To limit Trump's policies to simply nationalist optics is to suggest that he has no vision for the future, other than garnering short-term political support. IOW, he's merely interested in his 4-8 year political career.

But that conclusion is completely contrary to what he explicitly is saying. The future is NOT written - we can create the future we want by building the proper foundation today.

That's what this is really about, and it's why any conservative worthy of the name should be excited with what's about to be unleashed.

58 posted on 12/02/2016 5:13:10 PM PST by semantic
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To: EveningStar
It is called economic nationalism. Ignore the calls of crony capitalism. We must do everything to make the US business environment welcoming to our own businesses and even those who wish to invest here.

The US domestic market is the biggest in world when it comes to consumers. We have all the leverage and don't use it. Cheaper goods for the consumer are great under globalism, but it is destroying the US middle class.

59 posted on 12/02/2016 5:49:21 PM PST by kabar
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To: EveningStar

The State of Indiana is free to do what it wishes as far as state taxes are concerned. The establishment types that could not win an election and stop the Left are peeing in their pants over a principle that comes secondary to the right of a State to decide such matters...


60 posted on 12/02/2016 6:21:03 PM PST by DBeers (The concept of peace in Islam requires not co-existence but submission.)
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