Replies

This worked economically because, and only because, PA and NC belong to the same United States and play by the same rules.

This is not true at all. The reason those industrial jobs left Pennsylvania for North Carolina was that PA and NC were not playing by the same rules. Industrial jobs left the Northeast for other parts of the U.S. precisely because people living in those other parts of the U.S. had a lower standard of living (and therefore were willing to work for less money and/or worse working conditions than their counterparts in the Northeast).

The primary force behind the movement of jobs overseas has not been "cheap" competition from overseas, but the elimination of socio-economic variations right here in the U.S. between different geographic regions. The demise of the U.S. as an industrial power began once these variations in economics and working conditions were gradually smoothed out by Federal legislation/regulations like OSHA, Social Security, minimum wage laws, labor laws, etc.

PA and NC were not playing by the same rules. Industrial jobs left the Northeast for other parts of the U.S. precisely because people living in those other parts of the U.S. had a lower standard of living (and therefore were willing to work for less money and/or worse working conditions than their counterparts in the Northeast).

There was much less difference between states, business wise, than there currently is between any state and China. We had federal labor and minimum wage laws long before manufacturing started moving to China. There were, and still are, wage differences between states -- some are "right to work", and some are union states. The states have been equally subject to federal laws for several decades. The EPA was founded in 1970 under Nixon. OSHA was also founded in 1970. Social Security has been around since FDR. The federal income tax has been around (our neck) since 1913. China has none of this.

What is drastically different is that Congress has been handing over its authority on a variety of issues to unelected global treaty organizations during the last couple of decades. They've been raising our taxes and spending like drunken sailors, while they vote to strangle every industry in our country. Maybe this is their roundabout way to convince the people to lobby for less regulation and taxes, but it will probably get much worse before it gets better.

One can hardly argue that the cost of tax and regulation has been deleterious to industry in the US, and deleterious to the welfare of US residents in many regards.

But you miss the point. The concept PJBuchanan has consistently promoted has been FAIR trade--iow, adjusting US tariffs to compensate for tax/reg costs on a country-by-country basis.