... multi-year outsourcing trend
"Would you tell that to Lizzie? She seems to think it's all GWB's fault. It appears to me to have been going on for DECADES. At least since the 1970's."
>>> Yes, for decades, but --- begining in the nineties --- outsourcing seemed to move into more 'white collar' job catagories than previously....
...To achieve the greatest efficiencies from Capitalism, all inputs must be transferable --- that includes labor and capital.
"Yes."
...But it is also reasonable (to prevent a 'rush to the bottom') to condition transferability of labor to similar environmental and labor standards. I would suggest that tax benefits be apportioned accordingly, and that 'tiers' of nations be established, to deliniate between nations where labor rights and environmental standards are equivalent to those prevailing in the US... and those with lesser levels of protection.
"Hmmmmm......
Legal.
Constitutional."
>>> Since I am talking only about US tax laws, government purchasing contracts, US foreign aid, and treaties that I expect the US to negotiate concerning international trade... then I fail to see anything in what I have proposed as having a constitutional problem.
"But MY GAWD what a bureaucracy you just created! And an endless catfight!"
>>> see no need for any new burteaucracy.
"Who judges these things? How?"
>>> Ultimately, the administration and Congress, when they advance treaties, or make tax code provisions.
"If a nation guarantees and requires employment, as Communism did, is that a plus? Really?"
>>> Never said anything about 'guaranteed' employment. Don't see that as practicable, nor should it factor in to anything I've proposed.
"Is the US punished for not forcing companies to give 6 or 8 weeks paid vacation as is common in Europe?"
>>> I said 'tiers' (perhaps 1, 2, 3... or perhaps 5) of 'similar' zones of environmental and legal regulations. Assume that - for most practical considerations - 'first world countries' would all find themselves in the same tier.
...It would be fair to use the federal treaty-making process to encourage greater levels of protections in foreign nations... and to use the tax laws to give lesser benefits when jobs are moved to the more 'non-compliant' countries. (I believe it would be safe to say that North Korea and Burma would likely find themselves in the bottom tier....)
"Legal. Constitutional."
>>> Already addressed; treaties and US tax regulations, etc.
"Another quagmire and opportunity for foreign nations to bribe bureaucrats and congresscritters."
>>> So, what isn't?
"Better than anyone else. No one of those doing the b***hing, moaning, and whining has even TRIED for any solution. They just want to complain and blame a decades long trend on the current administration."
>>> Few seem to be able to look at the serious long-term issues... for example, the fact that the historical great expansion of the American middle class in the post WW II years --- arguably a defining moment in American and world history --- began reversing in the 1970s.... And, measured in real (inflation-adjusted) terms, from the early 1970s to now, the middle class has not increased it's wealth. The post WW II surge has passed high-water mark, and begun retreating.
>>> Clearly, this is a much more serious situation than whichever temporary Republicrat is on top at the moment. I believe that much of the problem lies in the US's corrupt and free market-unfriendly bizantine tax codes. |
