I’ve been reading a lot of discussion in comment threads about the Trump-Pence deal that saved 1,000 manufacturing jobs at the Carrier Air Conditioning manufacturing plant in Indiana. A lot of people are attacking the tax relief as “crony capitalism,” (even those who were perfectly fine with the billions Obama pumped into crony green energy companies like Solyndra) while others praise that it’s the first small step in Trump’s program to “Make America Great Again.” I side more toward the latter camp. Carrier is a small PR win that can be leveraged into a broader program of tax and regulatory form that will be good for the economy. I hope that’s what Trump is planning.
If you remember, Obama mocked the idea that the 1,400 job the Carrier Air Conditioning jobs could ever be saved. He would have chosen instead to fall back on the “job training” and more welfare. Handouts and Government spending are the lazy man’s solution. Job training programs are not very effective, but they keep left-wing bureaucrats employed. The view of the left is too often, “Oh, you didn’t want those icky manufacturing jobs anyway, We’ll train you to polish windmills and coordinate safe spaces.” Or, as they call them, “The jobs of tomorrow.”
Of course Obama wanted “jobs training”.. this is a way to keep unemployment numbers low. Generally students are not included in the unemployment numbers.
In the comment threads around, I’ve noticed a lot of whining about tax payer dime violation. My response has been, since when do Tax & Spend Democrat’s complain about taxes. Cutting people off at the pass by informing them of their lack of information, is too easy & provides no satisfaction. Too much fat to chew threw to get to the meat.
Carrier made that announcement when ‘everyone’ though Hilary Clinton was a guaranteed win.
Maybe all Trump had to do was personally promise/commit to the tax/regulatory relief he campaigned on. Trump is betting on that success. It will be terribly embarrassing if two years pass and Carrier finally says Adios!
The standard libertarian/conservative response to offshoring of American jobs is that those are “the jobs of the past”. That those workers are now available for the “jobs of the future”. But they never have a answer for the questions, where are these future jobs, if everyone around me is losing their job how do I sell my house? What happens to me if I make the trek to the place of the”jobs of the future”,and there not there? What if I am good with my hands , but not with academics? When you raise these questions , the reply is to call you a loser and you deserve to starve! (Michael Berry) I don’t know if Trump is a true conservative,but at least he doesn’t seem to treat the American people as mere statistics.There seems to be the chance that he will put our interests first.
Matthew, #4, no Conservative would say such a thing. A Libertarian might or might not, depending on his mood. Establishment Republicans, who are or are not conservative & who collude with the Chamber of Commerce & the Corporates would immediately, indeed, say something like that. Of course, there are one-off’s like Mark Levin who don’t understand the issue as a whole & think freewheeling trade, without limits, & that unlimited outsourcing is a good thing (it’s not). While the business of America – is business – one of our governments few mandatory duties is to protect the citizenry. In this day & age, that translates to not allowing our industries to peter out, not preserving self-sufficiency within out borders, not allowing our industry to increase the wealth of our enemies.
Conservatism is preserving the best in our society & opposing radical change. Believing in a borderless world where we are all as one, is a fantasy. Allowing our resident companies to do as they please, is not a good idea; because, while it is not their duty to provide jobs it IS the duty of our government to make sure that our own people aren’t swindled out of jobs.
The whole thing, in essense can be seen as a wash. If we restrict, by tariffs or whatever, cheap imports, we will pay more for a product. However; our people will have more jobs. The difference is, we won’t be increasing the wealth of our enemies or others – at the expense of American jobs. I’d rather have a job & pay a bit more for a pair of shoes. There is no actual reason, progress-wise, to shift everything around. Increasing the wealth of others & giving them leverage in case of dispute between nations.
Of course, companies do have a commonsense moral duty to tamp down unions, which increase the cost of a product. An employee’s duty to himself is to survive & find work to enable his survival. He doesn’t have the right to demand, morally, to dictate to others what they will pay him.
But all this would be relevant in a world where we had what was lost because of the unions demanding more money for their workers. All of which is why outsourcing came into being. Or one of the reasons, anyway.
One should not be sympathetic to unions, or to companies. Neither have your best interest at heart. You have to take care of yourself, in this world. The Establishment, Globalists & others don’t think individualism is a good thing, so they will provide their version of how they think you should live, in order to rule over you.
Hanover – I don’t think you can say “no” conservative would say such a thing. I refer you to Kevin Williamson’s notorious rant:
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/432876/donald-trump-white-working-class-dysfunction-real-opportunity-needed-not-trump
As far as Carrier, I dislike the idea of “tax incentives”: why should Carrier (United Technologies) get tax advantages Mom&Pop’s machine shop can’t dream of?
That said, it is good to see some attention paid to the ongoing job loss. It’s likely that decent blue-collar jobs will continue to disappear given automation of off-shoring but, perhaps, Trump can change policy to not actively target the working classes.
I used to think American workers were collateral damage but after reading Michelle Malkin’s “Sold Out” and reading the news these last few years, I think US workers are targets.
(Williamson makes some valid points but, aside from his snobbery and disdain, he neglects the existence of the bell curve and human nature).
BigJ, completely agree. It sounds like Pence stepped up with tax breaks, and when I hear the charges of “crony capitalism” my immediate response at this point is that Trump is using the tools available to him to temporarily plug the hole (at least somewhat) in order to buy some time & goodwill/political capital.
We really will know in a couple of years whether Trump’s promises are both fulfilled and maintained such that it makes good sense again for businesses to keep jobs here (and repatriate other jobs) without requiring special dispensation.
Trump did make comments suggesting he’d like the corporate tax rate at or near zero. We should be taxing consumption, not production. However, presidents (or congressmen or justices) shouldn’t be picking tax code winners and losers and our current system deliberately incentivizes just that because such a tax code funds political campaigns. Trump has also made statements that he intends to punish companies that set up operations in foreign countries. This is not a good sign.
My favorite take on the Carrier deal is a cartoon I saw online where President Obama is in the Oval Office with a putter in his hands and golf ball on the carpet and one of the doors opens with Donald Trump in a service uniform saying “Hey, I fixed your Carrier air conditioner!”
Speaking of jobs…
Oops. California Pensions Underfunded by $1 Trillion, or $93,000 Per Household, Stanford’s Pension Tracker Study Reveals
(That’s also a 157% increase from 2008 to 2015)
Alright, oh-so-frugal Kommunifornia’s public sector geniuses of “sustainability” and “affordability”, care to share your plans when you’ll run out of s*ckers to steal from?
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-12-02/stanford-study-reveals-california-pensions-underfunded-1-trillion-or-93k-household
Insanity, noun:
http://i.imgur.com/GKoV4Jc.jpg
doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
TRUMP isn’t even in office yet & the left is trying to downplay how many American jobs he saves. Just wait until a picture of Obama at the Golf Driving Range on top of the Border Wall comes out.
If he can extend that tax break to all corporations, just watch the economy boom, unemployment dwindle, and the number in the jobless ranks (who have stopped looking for work) suddenly shrink.
Put in stipulations of public service for the able bodied to get food stamps and other forms of welfare, and it will shrink further.
Put up the wall, and punish employers who hire illegal immigrants, make it easier for them to become legal (without cutting in the line) and you will go a long way toward ending a lot of our problems.