It would seem that this would be obvious to almost everyone, but…
From TP:
A Washington Post/ABC News poll released this morning finds that 44 percent, a plurality, of Americans think the economy is getting worse, rather than staying the same or getting better. With unemployment hovering around 9.6 percent while economic inequality is at levels not seen since the Depression, many Americans feel as if the economy is leaving them behind.
The Wall Street Journal reports today that Corporate America certainly isn’t doing its part to help bring America out of its economic malaise. The paper surveyed employment data by some of the nation’s largest corporations — General Electric, Caterpillar, Microsoft, Wal-Mart, Chevron, Cisco, Intel, Stanley Works, Merck, United Technologies, and Oracle — and found that they cut their workforces by 2.9 million people over the last decade while hiring 2.4 million people overseas.
The paper notes that this is actually a sharp reversal from trends in the late 1990s, when these major companies were creating more jobs in the United States than overseas. Yet by 2001, things took a turn for the worse, and these corporations have been adding more jobs abroad than at home, as is illustrated here:
So why is Congress against taxing the companies that close up shop here and hire overseas?
Have you ever thought about all the insourcing that’s going on? How about all the foreign companies that set up US operations and hire millions of US citizens? No one ever mentions all of those folks.
And did anyone every think why it is that there is outsourcing? Perhaps because the taxes and the mandates and the regulations and the extra costs and all of the other bureaucracy that companies have to go through? Most of these being liberal policies that have simply increased the burden on the employers. To simply say that outsourcing is “bad” and “killing the middle class,” why don’t you dive into the matter to see what the real reasons are?
Let’s start by eliminating corporate taxes (because consumers pay the taxes, not the companies), reduce the minimum wage, get rid of half the federal and state bureaucracies that create unnecessary paperwork for the business owners, and then you might see some “retro-sourcing.” How’s that suit ya?
Yep, I did think about that. I had a large post on insourcing about 6 or 8 months ago. The reasons for outsourcing are clear. I have talked about on a number of occasions. check out – https://whereistheoutrage.net/2011/02/10/labor-arbitrage/
We aren’t going to eliminate corporate taxes. That’s the problem. Corporations are paying too little now. They are less than at any time in the last 100 years yet there continues to be whining over corporate taxes. Corporations are the spoiled brat in the corner always crying about how terrible they have it when in fact the climate for corporations has never been better. NEVER. Corporate profts. CEO salaries. Production costs are down. Productivity of workers has never been higher.
If you think about your suggestions for just a second you would realize that none of that will work. If we eliminate corporate taxes, corporations want corporate subsidies in order to pad the bottom line. It is the nature of a Corporation. if they hired workers for $5/hr they would want to pay less. There is no end to desire to drive down costs including labor costs. So, no I’m not going to support eliminating corporate taxes. As a matter of fact, I will push to have them increased.
Thanks for your comments.
RE: Bbrooks630:
While insourcing does provide local jobs and possibly some community re-investment funds for the locality that they’re based in, if foreign companies receive the same types of tax breaks, abatements, concessions, etc. that US companies receive, they are paying little else.
I’m not that well versed in international business, but wouldn’t their corporate taxes, like American companies in foreign countries, go back home (notwithstanding the amazing (read: reprehensible) feats of financial dexterity that US companies perform in order NOT to pay a dime more in taxes than they can get away with…)?
The mandates, regulations, extra costs, etc. that you allude to are all costs of doing business in a country that values the life, health and safety of it’s citizens/workers and communities, and observes the rule of law, which is one of the things that makes it desirable to do business in and with America.
I feel that your suggestions only suit those who are willing to see (or to hasten) the deterioration of our economy until we are in little better shape than the countries that our jobs are being outsourced to.
Okay the corporation I work for paid 20% of the taxable income. Sales were $ 3,500,000 .The profit was $1,305.499. The taxable income was $ 84,500 and the tax on that amount was $16,980. The company pays good salaries and has a profit sharing plan along with employer paid insurance and matching retirement. The business doesn’t owe anyone so there are not any writeoffs for leases. The sales were $3,500,000.
There were tax breaks if you reinvested the money into the company and we did. But the profit was still large and the taxes were very small. This is according to me. My personal tax to the feds on my taxable income was 25%. I only made 60,000 so tell me how they are paying too much in taxes.
How about giving us some examples of these regulations and extra costs? I hear this same rhetoric continually about why corporations are relocating to other parts of the world, but nobody states exactly which policies are leading them overseas. It seems people are satisfied with soundbites, but I am interested in solutions. Exactly what needs to change for corporations to become decent American neighbors and share their wealth a little.