American JOBS- The Solution
First, I would like to thank all of the men and women who serve in our military.
Without you, I would NOT be FREE to write this stuff.
Thank you for your service..!!
American JOBS part 3- “The Solution” (Dream, the impossible Dream)
This is part three of a series of editorials on American JOBS. In the last two editorials, we talked about “what went wrong” and WHY we need to return jobs to America.
THE PROBLEM
America has become a country that doesn’t MAKE anything, anymore.
We service things, and we sell things.
But very few products are actually made here in America.
As a result, many Americans are “underemployed”, and 10% of the American workforce is unemployed. They have no job.
In just a few years, because of republican AND democrat party leadership, we have dropped from 5 % unemployment, to 10% unemployment.
If this trend is allowed to continue and the unemployment rate doubles again; we will be closing in on the 29% unemployment rate of The Great Depression.
It MUST stop now.
Democrats and Republicans are fighting over “words on paper.”
2,000 pages of words on paper, called: “Health Care Reform Act.”
Health Care might be important to some.
Education is at the top of the list for others.
But American JOBS and the economy should be important to all.
I do not claim to have the answers, I only have a single solution.
You may agree or disagree with my solution. However, we should agree that the economy and jobs should be the number one priority for every politician in Washington.
For, without a solid workforce, without a strong economy, there will be no tax money for education, or health care, or newly paved roads.
American JOBS- The solution
To come to this solution that I have, I had to drop a couple of “beliefs” that I held dear.
It wasn’t easy.
(Belief One) Religious-
“..If you give a man a fish, that is very noble, he can eat. However, you will have to give this man a fish tomorrow.
If you teach a man to fish, he can feed himself..”
In essence, that is what we did. We taught the “third world” how to fish.
Ever since I was a child, I remember hearing about the starving people in Asia, Mexico, Africa, and the likes. America has sent billions of dollars in foreign aid to starving nations, only to have to send more the next year.
By allowing our manufacturing to head overseas, we gave the third world a “fishing pole” so they can feed themselves.
However, with our current economic situation and lack of good paying jobs, there should be a third line in that old parable. A line that reads:
“..If the man that you taught to fish begins fishing IN YOUR POND and takes all of your fish, causing you to go hungry. It is time to kick that man in the ass..”
(OK, my “third line” of that parable may not fit into most religious text. But the point is made.)
Yes, God wants us to help the poor.
But God doesn’t want us to be stupid and hungry.
There are many ways to help the poor. But we cannot help anyone, if WE are poor and hungry.
(Belief Two) Strict Conservatism
“..The government cannot interfere in the ‘free Market’. What about the constitution? Every time that the government messes with capitalism, they screw the whole thing up..”
This is a tough one. You hear it on every conservative show. All of the “talk stars” subscribe to the notion that “you cannot mess with free enterprise.”
This idea is simply not true. The free market in America has NEVER been “truly” FREE, and has been “screwed with” by the government, ever since the founding fathers. Sometimes it works very well. Sometimes, it doesn’t work at all.
I can only give a couple of examples of what I am talking about here, and we have to move on:
In 1904, a Socialist named Upton Sinclair was paid $500 bucks to write a fiction series for a newspaper about American workers. Sinclair focused on slaughter houses and the Meat Packing industry in Chicago. In the 1900’s, people were dying from tainted meat. The meat packing industry in America was sickening.
The meat packing plants were unsanitary. Meat was left out in the open for too long, and people were dying.
The goal of Sinclair was to show Americans that capitalism didn’t work, and socialism could protect you.
Sinclair’s work, later packaged as a book called: “The Jungle”, was mostly fiction. (It was never proved that someone actually fell into a meat grinder and was sold for food.) However, Sinclair’s book had just enough truth in it, that it become popular.
The goal of the socialist movement and Sinclair’s idea failed with the American public. Instead of adopting socialism, our government created the “Food and Drug Administration”, which began inspections into America’s food industry.
No one reading this can deny that WE MUST have an independent government agency to watch over our food and drugs. If left unchecked, private business could become “The Jungle”, that Sinclair penned, long time ago.
The second example I wanted to give, before we move on, is based on Thomas Edison.
Back when America was “getting wired” for electricity, Mr. Edison was NOT going to run power lines out to rural areas and farmers.
I will paraphrase what Edison said:
“..I’m not spending hundreds of dollars to run power lines and telephone poles out to some farmer, so I can get a couple of bucks back selling electricity..??”
Power companies were not going to run power lines out to the rural areas.
It took the government to create the REA, which ran power lines, and then bought electricity from existing companies to sell to the farmers.
FACT: There are 6 billion people in the world today, only half of the world’s population has electricity, even today.
The government CAN do some things very well. They can also screw things up.
Unfortunately, we will need the government’s help to return JOBS back to America.
Here is what we CANNOT do
When trying to figure out what we need to do to return jobs back to America, it helps to rule out what we cannot do.
Lower payroll
We cannot ask American workers to work for the same pay as their Mexican and Chinese counterparts. Rule that one out.
Ending OSHA and the EPA.
We all want clean water, fresh air, and safe jobs. So, there is not much that we can do here.
We can pull back on some of the outrageous EPA rules: “the Delta Smelt” cutting off the water supply to California farmers, EPA restrictions on wood burning heaters (our only TRUE renewable source heater), etc.
A “Buy American” campaign
Back in the 1970’s and 80’s, you could have a successful “buy American” campaign because you could still find American TV’s, clothes, and such, to choose from.
Today, you will not find an American made TV sitting on a shelf next to a Japanese made TV. You are not going to find an American made shirt sitting next to a shirt made in India. Even if you wanted to “buy American”, you could not. It has gotten that bad.
The above was a list of things that we cannot do. Let’s move on to:
American JOBS- The Solution
Taxation.
That’s the solution.
(Really, it’s the only thing that we can do to bring back jobs to America.)
Today; American made products are taxed higher than foreign made product ONLY because the government can tax American made products- more.
In America, we can tax a product many times during the manufacturing process and the distribution. Then we can tax that product again during the sale of it, to you.
A foreign made product is taxed when it comes into the country, and again on the resale to you.
(That’s a bit simplified, but you get my drift.)
When you add taxation, and high labor costs, with EPA laws, and OSHA concerns, it is amazing that anything is still “Made in America.”
I propose the removal of ALL taxes on American made products.
All Federal, State, and Local taxes will be removed from any product that is “truly” Made in America.
To compensate for the loss of revenue to the government, an import tax (tariff) shall be placed, therein, or raised, if applies.
Now, I am not an economist. So, I cannot tell you how high the import tax would be. A really good “bean counter” would have to go over the federal budget and figure out “how high” to raise this import tax. (And, I’m sure that this economist would tell me that it is impossible to remove ALL taxes from American made products.)
A very low domestic tax, coupled with a higher import tax, should level the playing field.
The downside: No company is going to move to America “the minute” that this new tax policy is implemented. Companies would wait a year or so to see if we are serious about it.
Which means, the cost of buying goods will be very high, for all of us.
The upside: We grow “most” of our own food. So food cost shouldn’t be effected. We use American lumber to build houses, so housing shouldn’t be effected. We may have to make an exception for heating oil and gasolene.
The downside: China will be pissed off at us..!!
If we were to do this, we would piss off most of the world. We would be breaking trade policies, and we would be kicked out of the “One World Order” club.
The upside: We would be kicked out of the “One World Order” club.
Hey, what’s China going to do? Kick our ass..??
These foreign countries already know that America’s foreign trade laws are screwed up. They laugh at us.
The ratio:
For every (1) children’s toy that is made in America and shipped to China. China makes 1,000 different toys that are shipped back here.
For every (1) GM car that is sold in Japan, Japan sells 400 cars to America.
Folks, these people are laughing at us. And they are getting rich. And we are losing work.
I believe that after a year or two, when companies see that we are serious with this new tax system, they will be moving to America, and hiring American workers.
The timing is right
Many American companies moved to foreign lands in the 70’s and 80’s. Which means that their buildings are going on 30 or 40 years old. They may be thinking about expanding or re-tooling their factories. If we catch them in time, why not build here in America? Get a BIG tax break. Instead of putting a new plant in India or Malaysia..??
We really are not talking about something that is “that” radical. We do this all the time, between the states. One county will offer Wal-Mart a 5 year tax break if they build their new Wal-Mart here, instead of another county, somewhere else.
The State of Pennsylvania will offer a Hollywood movie company BIG incentives to film a movie here, instead of some other state. (Which means another “killer zombie” movie will be made near Pittsburgh Pennsylvania; “Night of the living dead”, “Dawn of the dead”, etc.)
So, this tax plan is not really radical.
Some products are partially made in America. Parts for this product are made somewhere else and shipped here to be assembled. “That’s not good enough.”
I suggest a “Pride in America” label.
This label, (dressed up with a pretty flag) will tell consumers “how much of the product is actually Made in America.”
If 50% of the product is actually made in America, then they get a 50% reduction in tax. This would place an incentive to make MORE of their product here.
Take a car, for example: it would be impossible to make 100% of a car here, right now.
However, let’s say that TODAY: 60% of a Chevy is made in America. You can bet that Honda will advertise 70% of their car is made in America. (And they will display it WITH PRIDE on the “Pride in America” label.) This will cause Ford to relocate a factory from Mexico, up to Detroit, or Cleveland, and advertise 75% “Made in America.” And so on.
I have racked my brains for this editorial, and this series of posts on American JOBS. I wanted to provide solutions, not just talk about it.
We do not want to lower our wages. We do not want to pollute the earth. Our only choice to bring back American JOBS is through taxation.
I truly believe that if we remove ALL taxes from American Made products, and raise taxes on foreign products to compensate for lost government revenue, we can entice manufacturing back into America.
We CAN provide Americans with JOBS.
This concludes the third editorial on American JOBS. I am placing links below, incase you missed the first two editorials.
The forth editorial in this series is really special.
For those of you who still believe that the American government CANNOT interfere with the free market…
Well, we are going to learn exactly what the founding father did, when faced with a similar situation, as we have today.
Also in the next editorial, we will talk about how to implement this new tax policy. (How to get congress on board.)
But, that will be our next editorial. Due out in a week or two.
American JOBS part 3- The Solution
(You just read that one)
American JOBS part 4- Franklin, Adams, tell us what to do?
(Due out, in about 2 weeks)
Written by AR Babonie for The Angry Republic
Thanks for reading
The Angry Republic