Actually, Pat is silent on taxes. But I'm sure he's yelping, much like Mssrs. Chirac and Schroeder, about all those high-paying manufacturing jobs fleeing overseas.
My resolution to the problem the EU is facing with their corporations being enticed into Easter Europe, would be to encourage their corporations to set up shop in those Eastern nations for domestic consumption.
If Mercedes Benz wants to open a manufacturing plant in Poland, let them do so as long as those cars are sold in Poland.
I know you differ with me on this, but I do not think it's wise to completely gutt the more advanced nations, by moving manufacturing jobs out of them.
When these practices are implemented to their optimum, we have situations where nations like China obtain access to nearly all technology, with almost no expense for R & D. Should you and I have to pay for the R & D to gift to China? Should we allow less desirable nations like China obtain that tech? Should we allow third world nations to have that tech for free?
These are issues that I do not think get addressed adequately enough under today's current business climate. All too often we are finding our foreign policy driven by super-corporations. When Loral give missile tech to China, it was already too late by the time the street was aware of it. Now Chinese missles have MIRV tech and multiple warhead technology that they should have never had.
I think there are reasons for us to be skeptical of our current trade practices, although I don't always agree with Pat's angle.