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I disagree.

If the costs of manufacturing go up due to legislation, or additional corporate taxes are required, the company simply adds that cost onto their products and that company becomes, as is commonly said, a tax collector for the government. It becomes a pass through cost.

But just because it is a pass through cost, that does not mean there is no cost.

That means the taxpayer has to pay more for a product, and is going to have to earn more to buy products, driving wages up, which puts US industry at a competitive disadvantage.

And that is by no means the only mechanism, absolutely none of this functions in a compartmentalized vacuum.

Excessive taxation on the citizenry to pay for any and all things (from necessary military to social experimentation crap) decreases the amount of money they have to enjoy the fruits of their labor at best, or at worst, pay for the necessities of life such as a roof over the head, car in the garage, food on the table, and clothes on their backs.

They have to have their wages increased to meet these needs, which Industry must eventually do in order to attract skilled workers. That they can also try to pass onto the consumers, but at some point, their productivity will decrease because they will hire fewer workers or less skilled workers to meet the financial requirements (in the eyes of financial people) for a healthy business.

Or, they will find places where they can manufacture things more cheaply. Moving closer to the source of raw materials for their products, moving to a part of the country where labor is cheaper and less unionized, buying cheaper materials, cutting corners.

Or they may choose to move a plant to a foreign country like Mexico, over the border, where moving a plant from fifty miles from the Mexican border on the US side, to fifty miles from the US border on the Mexican side.

Point is, none of this works in a vacuum. Taxation and Over-regulation KILL industry. Absolutely kill it. Thomas Sowell believes in removing those taxes and regulation to make the move to a foreign country a moot point.