Loss of factory jobs may have a long fall to bottom

He pointed out that in the early 1990s the outlook for jobs and growth was gloomy, much as it is today. Few could see the boom that was just beginning.

The boom was not based on substance and it crashed witha loud thud, ruining more people's financial well being than we could ever imagine.

I understand in Texas they have a saying "All hat and no cattle" which would be appropriate for the 90s "boom".

Ping

Back after an unexpected time away

In response to your comments then one might presume the wages for those skilled positions will increase exponetially. Or will this be merely anothe rexcise to bring in more non-immigrant salves?

Acknowledgement RDB3 who helped hammer out this plan.

In no particular order of importance.

1. Get rid of government subsidies for offshore investment of US companies. OPIC is the first such program which should go but support of World Bank programs that subsidize the outflow of Capital would be another.

2. Use tariffs on those nations which are engaged in unfair trade practices such as currency manipulation (China and India for example), those nations which refuse to open their markets to US products (China for example with its 50% tariffs on US consumer goods and non tariff barriers), those nations that subsidize competition to American Industry (airbus for example) and those nations which have slave conditions for their workers.

3. Use tariffs and other means to prevent the relocation of jobs offshore that are essential to the national defense. If necessary take control of the company seeking to export vital technology or industry by means of eminent domain (No I do not like this last option and I will only defend its use as an absolute last resort like say in the case of rare earth magnets essential to smart bomb technology). Provide a hardened, widely distributed infrastructure to supply all that is needed for our military units and civil defense that can be continued to be deployed in the event of any military attack.

4. An immediate end to guest worker programs. If people wish to come to the USA to work and make a life let them immigrate according to the rules.

5 Provide economic development zones where the corporate income tax is zero for operations within these zones. In order to operate in this zone a company must agree to only purchase American components if available and employ only American citizens or legal immigrants in these operations. These economic development zones shall be eventually be expanded to include every bit of every state once the benefits are shown I would like them to be totally implemented immediately but I realize that may be overreaching. It must be stated for clarification that simply being in the geographic area of the zones does will not subject any company to any new mandatory regulation. Everything is voluntary for getting the exclusion from corporate taxation. The profit attributable to direct imports is subject to the same rules that exist everywhere else in this nation for corporate taxation. Only free from such taxation is the profit attributable to American content and any American improvement. In short no new mandatory regulation will be a part of this. It is my opinion that there will not be a lack of companies seeking this tax relief. And no the regulation implied is absolutely minimal in order to get this through.

6. Scale back unnecessary regulation including the tort system. Institute a cap on punitive damages, limits on class action suits, and limits on liability to the actual percentage of liability with no plaintiff able to collect if said plaintiff was involved in the commission of a felony at the time of the alleged tort or was more than 49% negligent in the alleged tort. Note that the loser in a frivolous lawsuit shall pay the attorney fees of the winner. There are many other regulatory structures that also need to be included that need to be included such as repealing the Family leave mandate, getting rid of OSHA etc.

7. Increase the domestic content in purchases by the Department of defense and give absolute preference in non-domestic content to proven allies of the USA over say the French or Germans. The only reason any content for DOD purchase may come from non US allies is that content is not available elsewhere and is essential.

8. Do not allow expense involved in moving operations overseas to be included in business expenses under the IRS code.

9. Prosecute for perjury anyone who has made a false statement in order to employ an H1B or L1 visa worker. I will be lenient on the actual perjurer if he/she was ordered to make this false statement and he/she provides testimony to aid in the conviction of the person ordering the perjury. Just because a person is a CEO does not give them a pass on criminal behavior.

10. Prosecute anyone who orders the transfer of vital defense technology or funds a R&D project that could be of use to our military overseas except to strong allies of the USA. Make the necessary enhancements to our espionage laws so that continued support or funding of any R&D in a nation whose government has threatened the USA is guilty of espionage. The UK and Australia come to mind as meeting these criteria for being eligible for transfer of technology first. There will be other nations and a gradation of what can be transferred to which specific nation. Under no circumstances may technology be transferred to any nation whose government has threatened the USA within five years without a complete change of government or specific exemption from Congress and the administration.

11. Deport all illegal aliens immediately and take measures that prevent the entry of any more illegal aliens. Fine all companies knowingly employing illegal aliens Criminal sanctions should be imposed on anyone helping an illegal alien stay in the USA in violation of our laws.

12. Decrease the punishing levels of taxation on companies and eliminate the double taxation on corporate dividends. See effects of item 5 for how minimal this will be if item 5 covers the entire USA. Eliminate all IRS provisions that inhibit free use of independent contractors by businesses for example section 1706.

13. Eliminate the minimum wage so that the worker can be paid based on productivity. Overtime compensation will remain the same but instead of 150% of the "wage" the worker would receive 150% of the production pay. If one through 13 are enacted # 14 becomes an irrelevancy as no one will be working for that low a wage.

Now since I started posting this plan another idea has come up that in my opinion is a very good policy that stands on its own. Now I give credit to Jim Gibson and Freeper Ed_in_NJ for coming up with the idea, separately to the best of my knowledge. However I can be corrected on that. The tariff phrasing is from Jim Gibson.

“I suggest that the US Customs Department charge a $1,000-per-container inspection fee on every container entering the United States. This fee would be used to completely fund the cost of inspections. If we assumed that a four-man team could fully inspect two containers a day or about 500 per year, it would require 48,000 inspectors. Allowing for at least 2,000 support personnel, we would need at least 50,000 workers. Because these workers would require high intelligence and skill levels they should earn at least $30 per hour. At 40-hour weeks plus benefits, I estimate the cost per worker to be over $75,000 per year, all paid by the foreign manufacturers. Even so, this would still leave over $2.25 billion to cover all other costs. Any revenue not used would be used to compensate American workers displaced by foreign imports. “

I urge and encourage everyone who agrees with this plan and or the terror tariff idea to communicate this to every politician you can think of.

GEEEZ You scared me, bro!

WELCOME BACK! We missed your supportive presence in our continuing efforts to engage the misinformed and misguided ;) in debate!

As technology gets better it takes fewer people to make things...................

A PARTIAL LIE. Factories in Commie China are "fully staffed". At such dirt cheap wages they can afford people over the latest machinery. And still vastly undercut US producers on our home soil. All toys and children's playthings seem to be made in China and Asia.

What a load. Don't tell me you go for this nonsense.

manufacturing jobs have disappeared at a rate of about 75,000 per month

Many of them going to very potetnial agressors. We should think real hard about that.

Glad to see you back bro. We were a little worried about you.

Thanks for the PING and BUMP.

whether you like it or not the Joe Lunchpails of this country are getting scared and they want something done to bring back the jobs. If GWB won't or can't they will vote ofr someone else. And stories like this only feed this.

So glad you're back. Missed your pings.

I've worked in medicine for 22 years as a medical transcriptionist. When I started out, in 1981, foreign doctors were sort of an anomaly. Now, there are almost as many foreign doctors as there are American doctors practicing in the U.S. And it's only taken a little over 20 years for that to happen. In fact, one hospital in particular that I worked for at one time in Southern California had almost NO American doctors on staff. They were all foreigners. A couple of hundred of them. Also, I understand that if the FTAA treaty finally gets hammered out and passed, one of the provisions being pushed for is to allow ANY medical doctor from ANY South American country to practice medicine in the U.S. without being subjected to U.S. testing and/or licensing. That is downright scary.

Also, there's a big push among some of the congressional critters (IIRC Sen. Sam Brownback in particular) to bring in foreign nurses on visas, supposedly to take care of the projected nursing shortage that is supposed to take place in the future. This will not bode well for anyone considering a career in nursing.

We've had thousands of foreign doctors and nurses in this area for decades.

US born nurses and doctors still seem to find employment.