It is inevitable that under our form of capitalism that the race will always be to the bottom. In other cultures while it happens it happens at a much slower pace (Japan for one) and societies can adjust although they have their problems as well. Plus our government has encourages it with favorable treatment under tax laws and subsidies to expand overseas.
You mentioned Digital when I went to work after Bank of Boston. They moved a manufacturing facility to Puerto Rico and saved millions in taxes by our government. We do nothing about off-shore tax havens yet they are illegal and even today encourage expansion overseas though tax subsidies.
Let’s eliminate the tax subsidies and let expansion happen based not on tax savings but prudent business reasoning.
Mornin NG...........I'm not an economist and your post this morning sent me thru a series of twists and turns to try to find something informative to add to your response. In short, yes, the decline in manufacturing was inevitable, but the cards could have been played differently.
an article comparing Obama with FDR which shows me that limited or biased knowledge can result in varying interpretations on and even diametrically opposed explanations for almost anything. That being the case and because of my limited knowledge, I try to apply logic to a seemingly complicated problem. What resulted from this and some previous thoughts was the idea that our system of government is antiquated and prolly has been for at least 100 years. The complexities of running a 1st world nation are beyond the scope of "John Smith" who wants to run for Congress because he has a big ego and/or lots of money or because he wants to "change things". He must rely on "experts" to form an opinion and since these "experts" are generally chosen to comply with the predisposition of the official, who, for the most part, has been put into office by a special interest, the outcome is almost always biased and NOT in the interest of the common good or the country as a whole for that matter.
Consider the banking regulation bill.......it takes an "expert" to understand the absurd, imo, complexities of money and Barney Frank, although no dummy, has been a life-long politician without the credentials to write a bill that will prevent loopholes from being exploited faster than he can rewrite the law. I also remember all the quizzical but adoring faces in Congress when the "Meistro" spoke. It's what he didn't say, they should have been paying attention to if they could even begin to understand it.
True representation can only come from a group of people that speak for the various factions in a society. How we choose these people deserves close scrutiny. The most obvious obstacle is money. Until the money is taken out of politics, nothing resembling "fair" or "for the good of the people" or "for the good of the country" will come out of government.
If one remembers that the United States was founded by "people of means", who, of course, designed it to protect their own interests, it follows that our Constitution is not only antiquated, but flawed from the beginning.
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