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Gotta pay for the military industrial complex somehow...
Actually, given how the military budget is less than 20% of what the Federal Government spends, I'm thinking you should amend that to "gotta pay for the welfare state somehow."
Those who vote "yes" have little understanding of global economics, trade and commerce.
The concept of an American corporation is long gone. It's not coming back. This is the age of multi-national corporations. If China is getting costlier, the think tanks will identify the next cheaper labor pool and it's not America yet, unless the people are so desperate and unemployment is rampant that people are going to be forced into sweatshops.
Only a 1930s style depression can bring that about, and that's a vicious cycle for the corporation too.
South America and Eastern Europe are the hottest destinations now. More manageable than China. I keep speaking to a lot of Alejandros and Dmitries.
If Apple were to manufacture the iPad completely inside America, it's actual charge could be 7 to 10K (and I'm being lenient here). That will shred revenue. Companies aren't stupid. They don't let emotions cloud their business strategy.
I always marvel at the assumption of some American's as to their notion that there really is an "us", the corporate structure as it relates to globalism seems to be a continuing mystery to most. Whether it's a corporation in Europe, Japan, or the US, one thing remains constant, that is the fact that multi national corporations are just that. There is no "us" as in a combination of citizenry and government/business relations. This notion has been the underlying drive in the attempt by oil companies operating in the Bakken fields of north America, they want to make American's believe that the oil is somehow "American oil" when in fact all oil is sold on world markets wherein the highest bidder takes the oil.
This same notion of an "us" in all things American has caused people in the US to believe that they can somehow compete within this view of global economics. Globalism is NOT about labor cost differentials, it stands as a testimony to the advancement of an old idea, economic superiority, the real goal of multi national corporations. Labor cost is just one of many facets the globalist seeks to mitigate through the establishment of a worldwide network of corporate/government relations. Any laws that regulate are seen by capital managers as an uninvited intrusion on their assumed turf of superior economic strategies, it is their dream to own nothing and control everything, in that paradigm they are able to escape the responsibility of ownership while taking all the profit. This is why the world still suffers from a very noticeable imbalance of wealth despite the many years of global manufacturing and agricultural spread.
I'd like to be a bit more optimistic here but the truth of the globalist's goals dictate a much poorer America in the future, the multinationals are now opening new consumer markets and expanding existing markets around the world in an attempt to discount the damage they have brought to the American consumer economy. We are becoming economically irrelevant in a world where we once dominated the consumer market. Today the Chinese and southeast Asian's are beginning to flex their buying power muscles, but it may be a short lived phenomenon as their own realization of just how interconnected we really are hits home, the funny money of the western nations won't be worth a damn when the entire world experiences the inevitable crash of the western consumer markets. Here at home though....The band plays on.
An intelligent post. And that's unusual here, barring the crocodile's.
Actually, given how the military budget is less than 20% of what the Federal Government spends, I'm thinking you should amend that to "gotta pay for the welfare state somehow."
Medicare/Medicaid and social security are paid out of pay roll taxes. They're going broke, like the rest of the country, and being subsidized by deficit dollars like the rest of the government, of course. The uncovered portion of social securty/Medicare/Medicaid is about the same as the military budget. If you cut both the military and unfunded part of the social welfare program by half, you'd be about two-thirds of the way towards a balanced budget. 'Course, that'll never happen. Republicans won't cut the military and Dems won't cut the unfunded welfare state, and anything bipartisan by necessity won't make meaningful cuts to either.
Medicare/Medicaid and social security are paid out of pay roll taxes. They're going broke, like the rest of the country, and being subsidized by deficit dollars like the rest of the government, of course.
Please back this up with facts. Any information I have seen shows that Social Security & Medicare are paying for themselves today with the reserves they've built up over many years. This isn't a subsidy, that's like saying you're being subsidised by corporations because you're selling their stock & bonds to support your retirement.
Uh, sorry to break it to you but there IS no giant reserve of SS money that is being used to pay for the benefits today. Congress has spent that money and it's long gone. Poof. The SS benefits being given out today are taken directly from the SS taxes being paid by current workers. Which means that the retiring generations are taking the contributions of the current working class, and then the current working class will need an even bigger working class when they retire and so on and so forth. I don't know why Americans think that SS has a $2.5T pot of cash sitting in some bank gathering interest, that money has long been spent.
Please back this up with facts. Any information I have seen shows that Social Security & Medicare are paying for themselves today with the reserves they've built up over many years. This isn't a subsidy, that's like saying you're being subsidised by corporations because you're selling their stock & bonds to support your retirement.
hmm if thats true, then why did obama say that social security checks may not go out if the debt limit isnt increased?
Uh, sorry to break it to you but there IS no giant reserve of SS money that is being used to pay for the benefits today. Congress has spent that money and it's long gone. Poof. The SS benefits being given out today are taken directly from the SS taxes being paid by current workers. Which means that the retiring generations are taking the contributions of the current working class, and then the current working class will need an even bigger working class when they retire and so on and so forth. I don't know why Americans think that SS has a $2.5T pot of cash sitting in some bank gathering interest, that money has long been spent.
Yup, the $2.7 trillion is an accounting gimmick.
Remember back to the debt ceiling? Without creating more debt to pay back the debt the government owes to the SS Trust Fund, social security benefits cannot be paid. The money has been borrowed form the Trust Fund and spent. What pays social security benefits is deficit spending, not the "trust" fund. On top of that, there's currently an estimated $70 trillion in as yet to be funded liabilities... and by funded, we of course mean the funds that the government hasn't yet borrowed yet from the taxes it hasn't yet collected.
You gonna sell your US-made products in emerging markets?
Good luck with that.
Views like these are the problem. Too limited. A lot of work has been brought back over the past 4 years because it is NOT profitable to have the work done overseas. Why? Because they cannot do all the work effectively overseas. China is good for making Marti Gras beads. Do you really expect them to make jet engines and complex aerospace parts, which have always been a big part of the U.S manufacturing base? Many companies did try to outsource increasingly more complex work overseas. They found out the hard way that it doesn't work that easy.
Can China manufacture and assemble MacBooks and Iphones more cost effectively than if done in the U.S.A.? Absolutely. That's why they are made there. That doesn't mean the majority of manufacturing will be done elsewhere.
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