But did they really increase spending, or did real wages begin to fall under the impact of NAFTA and immigration?
Try, manufacturing leaving the US due to an anti-business climate and high tax burdens. Real wages fall, when saving and investment no long support capital investment applied to plant modernization and technological advance.
Why should manufacturing have reason to remain in the U.S. when red-tape, high tax costs, and regulatory environment assures failure in international markets inspite of US labor being the most productive in the world.
Something to think about:
Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee,
Rep. Bill Archer (R-TX)
August 12, 1996
- "A recent survey was done, in Europe and Japan, of the major corporations and I was astounded at the results. They were asked, 'If the US abolished its income tax and went to a sales tax, would that have any impact on your decisions?' Eighty percent of the corporations said they would build their factories in the United States of America. Twenty percent said they would move their international headquarters to the United States of America."
Tax reduction results in return of assets to US.
U.S. Companies Bring Overseas Profits Home; May Create Thousands of Jobs
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Led by drug makers, American companies have started announcing their plans to use a temporary tax break and shift back to the United States billions of dollars in profits that have been stashed abroad.
An incentive to invest in the U.S. economy -- that's how lawmakers promoted the short-term relief that lets companies avoid as much as 85 percent of the taxes they might otherwise pay on earnings abroad.
Try, "we're picking up our marbles and leaving town, we got a better tax deal down the road" -- business's favorite game for 60 years.
Real wages fall, when saving and investment no long support capital investment applied to plant modernization and technological advance.
How about, "yes"? How about, "NAFTA helped manufacturers undercut their labor contracts and ship American jobs to Mexico?"
But you still haven't answered the question. And "go get your own data" is not an answer.
Tax reduction results in return of assets to US.
Until some hungry-mouth country offsets the advantage by doing something else.
Even if Chinese workers received 15% raises for 30 years, they wouldn't even come close to erasing the wage differential between China and the U.S. That's because 15% of nothing still ain't much.
China's supply of prison slave-labor and Malthusian masses of rural poor will afford Chinese businesses a wage advantage for as far as the eye can see. Or do you disagree?
The "fair tax" is nothing but a tax-free operating environment for already-rich businessmen. They'll be able easily to afford their own sales-tax bills because their businesses will leverage them against the increases. They'll be able to afford the 30% rise in the retail cost of goods and services when their incomes go up 5,000%.