|
Edited on Sun Jul-30-06 12:16 PM by welshTerrier2
it might be valid to target third world governments for their lax labor and environmental practices ... they are indeed part of the chain that makes it impossible for American manufacturing to exist ...
but while you're busy devising magic spells, it might also be useful to target some players right here in our own country ... when software engineers were at a premium in the 90's, H1B visas skyrocketed ... the goal was to drive down wages in the US in the software industry ... in a very short time, good old "patriotic American" employers realized they could export the work to India rather than importing the workers to the states ...
i don't discount the points you raised about leveling the playing field ... i think they are very important points ... but the anti-worker, class warfare goes beyond some of those points ... the simple reality is that so called American companies were able to significantly increase the supply of workers by outsourcing jobs internationally ... even on a level playing field, doubling the supply without increasing the number of jobs would have driven salaries down for American workers ...
my proposal? start punishing companies, and their shareholders, that export jobs ... there are numerous ways to accomplish this ... we could take a positive approach like providing a jobs tax credit for each new American worker the company adds to its payroll ... or we could pro-rata eliminate the capital gains discount companies could provide to their shareholders based on the relative proportion of US workers compared to foreign employees they hire ... so, for example, if capital gains rates are 20% (or whatever), sale of stock in a company that employs 10 - 25% of its workforce outside the US would be taxed at say 25% instead of 20% ... companies from 26 to 50% foreign labor would have profits in the sale of their stock taxed at 30% and so on ...
if this violates the WTO, let's quit the WTO ... companies based in the US should be hiring US workers ... the problem isn't just third world countries; the problem is US companies ... they and their shareholders seek to profit by using foreign labor ... i think we need to discourage them from doing that ... hey Stinky, got a spell for these bad guys?
|