Posted on 04/02/2008 2:30:08 PM PDT by econjack
Here in Indiana, Obama has a new political ad running that starts with him standing amid an abandoned steel mill. He then states that he's going to penalize companies who close down factories because they do business overseas and reward those companies with tax breaks who create jobs in the US.
Actually, Ohio did this under governor Celeste. He proposed an "exit tax" for any company leaving Ohio. The "tax" was equal to 6 months wages for the company. Several months later after the stupid state legislators passed the exit tax, the governor was scratching his head asking: "Why aren't any new companies coming to Ohio and starting a business?" Well, duh! Does Obama think foreign companies like Honda, Toyota, Shell, and countless others would have opened plants here if they knew that home-based entities would be penalized? Think, Obama, think...
This has been done before using import quotas, tarriffs, and similar taxes. Indeed, steel is one of the most protected industries around, but they still can't cut it. Imported steel is still cheaper, so Obama (et al) want to impose even stronger penalties (quotas, tarriffs, taxes, etc.) to make imports more expensive than domestic steel. Bad idea.
First, Japan has been accused of dumping "cheap steel" in the US for years. Indeed, the steel workers union says they were selling steel here below their costs. If that's the case, we should buy all they can produce. Eventually, they'd have to shut down. The simple fact is that Japan has modern steel plants while the US is still trying to use plants that were built in the 1890's. It's higher production and labor costs that keep domestic steel prices too high.
Second, the gov't tax policies have raised steel prices for about 300 million domestic consumers of steel products, making products that use steel more costly for every consumer. All those higher prices on all those products just to protect a few thousand steel worker jobs. How is this a net gain for the average American? Doesn't the well-being of 300 million consumers of less expensive products outweigh the minor benefits to a few thousand steel workers who get to keep their over-paid jobs? If the steel workers union hadn't insisted on raising wages and benefits beyond reason, perhaps they'd still have a job. Meanwhile, you and I subsidize the union by paying higher than free market prices for products that use steel. I wonder why? Could it be because politicians want the votes the unions say they can deliver?
Obama, you and your cronies in Washington are not bright enough to solve a billion simultaneous equations per second like the free market can, so quit screwing around with it. If companies leave the US, perhaps it's because the workers are asking for wages that a free market won't support. If nothing else, an unemployed steel worker sends a clear message to his kids not to seek employment in the steel mills. Also, people in the US want less expensive products. If it means some less efficient sectors lose workers, they really don't seem to care much.
If you want to do something positive, tell the unemployed to look for retraining programs. Never forget that the largest (underutilized) training company in the US is the US military, and you don't have to pay for it. The tax code does little more than mess up resource allocation in a way that keeps politicians in office. How this for an idea: Do what's right rather than what serves your political agenda.
Oh, and while you're at it, any politician who wants to institute a new program (e.g., national health care) should simultaneously enact a tax that will pay for the program, or show what existing program will be removed and prove that the current taxes will completely pay for the new program.
A disaster of a candidate. Hopefully, he won’t get a chance to be a disaster as President.
Does this guy have any ideas that aren’t straight from his Marxist handlers?
“Does this guy have any ideas that aren’t straight from his Marxist handlers?”
Actually, he could have got that idea from some of our fellow freepers. Check out some of the ‘Fair Trade’ or ‘Wal-mart’ threads. You’ll find many freepers supporting quite similar ideas.
Alas, most people don't have a clue what free trade means. Indeed, if everyone in the World truly understood what it means and how it works, there would be no Fair Trade laws.
FREE AT LAST! by April 15!!!
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