The guy does make some very salient points.
First, Europe is an attractive investment for a number of reasons, the least of which isn’t the fact that their rates of corporate taxation are far less than what we have in the US, which are some of the most stifling in the world. (*ahem* Mitt Romney is the only one talking about it *cough*)
Second, their workforce is on the whole more educated and producing more professionals to drive their economies. We don’t produce enough engineers, for instance, to drive our economy, and we’re depending on bringing in foreign workers to drive the engine.
Part of the reason that the European economy has been able to keep abreast with the US’ is our trade deficit, which has sent the dollar downward. I guess that’s good for Boeing, but not a fabulous trend, frankly.
There is some absolute nonsense in it, though. Take this quotation:
>>> “Europe doesn’t so much have a welfare society as a comprehensive system of institutions geared toward keeping everyone healthy and working.” <<<
That statement is absolute trash. Europeans call in sick FAR more than Americans do. Scandinavians are the absolute worst. Freaking slugs at times. The average Swede takes 32 days of sick leave per year. The average Norwegian takes a comparable number of days.
Of course, part of this has to do with a higher percentage of smokers in Europe. But the numbers are pretty ridiculous:
>>>On an average day, about 25 percent of Norway’s workers are absent from work, either because they have called in sick, are undergoing rehabilitation or are on long-term disability. The rate is especially high among government employees, who account for half the work force.
The average amount of time people were absent from work in Norway in 2002, not including vacations, was 4.8 weeks. Sweden, its closest competitor, totaled 4.2 weeks, while Italy came in at 1.8 weeks and Portugal at 1.5 weeks, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. <<<
There’s a reason that output per capita in Europe is only about 68% of what it is in the US.
(cough) No he's not. (cough)
June 7, 2007
Mr. THOMPSON: We have, you know—if you include state taxes—the highest corporate tax rate in the world. That makes us less competitive. All those things have to be looked at. And all those—especially as far as the corporate tax rate is concerned, need to be clearly reduced, I think.
from an interview with Larry Kudlow
http://blog.nam.org/archives/2007/06/has_fred_thomps.php
Fred Thompson called for an extension of President Bush's tax cuts and a large reduction in the corporate tax rate at a speech today to a conservative group.
http://www.crosstabs.org/stories/elections/2008/fred_thompsons_speech_to_the_dad_summit_a_revisit
Thompson said he accepted Dell's invitation to talk about manufacturing "and what we might do in terms of policies in this country, tax policies and things like that, to make it easier for companies to keep their business here, to do their manufacturing here instead of taking it other places." Thompson was told by a Dell vice president that the U.S. has the second-highest corporate tax rate in the world, behind Japan, Dell spokeswoman Colleen Ryan said. He was also urged to consider how heavily the government taxes income earned in foreign countries, she said.
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/09/20/0920thompson.html
Saturday, 10/06/07 Fred Thompson calls for corporate tax cuts
WASHINGTON — More tax cuts are needed to stimulate the U.S. economy, Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson told a meeting of economic conservatives Friday. At a summit of the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, Thompson called for extension of the tax cuts championed by President Bush and said the country's corporate tax rate should be cut from its current 34 percent to at least 28 percent.
http://tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071006/NEWS0206/710060390/1016/NEWS02
And if the Huffington Post doesn't like him, he can't be too bad on corporate taxes:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-sirota/fred-thompson-k-street_b_51415.html
And let’s not forget the high unemployment rates compared to the USA.
“Second, their workforce is on the whole more educated and producing more professionals to drive their economies.”
My European friends tell me that unless one is born into the right family, those great Euro educations are wasted. That’s why many with an entrepreneurial bent move to the USA.
Simply look at productivity per worker and the standard of living in each place.
Case closed.
What amazed me here (read the entire Washington Post article) is Europe doesn't run a trade deficit. I was so shocked I had to verify and it is true LINK
So very roughly the EU has same size economy and same population as the United States but we run an 850 billion dollar trade deficit (2006) and EU is in trade balance. No wonder the € is rising and the $ is sinking.
Buyin' the Kool-Aid, eh? I'm a smoker and haven't taken a sick day in two years. It's the non-smokers who call in. All the freakin' time.