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Old 12-02-2016, 11:36 AM   #3168
Flamenspiel
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ernie View Post
Deal with reality instead of hoping reality will change.

A federal government can guide the general direction of an economy and make the environment favorable for full employment. They can not and SHOULD not be involved on that small local level.

Manufacturing has lost 250,000 jobs this year yet the economy has created a whole mess more overall. Those jobs aren't coming back. No matter how many deals someone wants to make those jobs will continue to move out of country.

That says in order to participate you need to shift your expectations. You need to deal in reality. There will always be some manufacturing in the US but the economy is shifting and people need to shift with that.

It's a horrible truth, I understand, but it's the truth.
That's a very narrow perspective, offshoring is not just about jobs that are gone, its also about the new jobs being off-shored. Engineering, law, technology, and IT technologies are in danger of being off-shored as well. These jobs are off-shored at the margin and 10-15% tax breaks are enough to keep the local economy moving in many cases.

Its lead what is called "near shoring", it happening in New Brunswick, Ontario, Nova Scotia BC(film), and Quebec. Tax advantages are happening for keeping the work local. Its a valid public policy goal and has a lot of support among liberals.

Japan is already doing this as Nikon and Canon are bringing their work back to Japan. Democrats were supporting the "Buy American" provision and this is potentially a bi-partisan effort. Trump is not out on the fringe here.

The ultimate threat to these jobs will be automation, in the meantime there is no need to be in such a rush to hull out our local industries.

Last edited by Flamenspiel; 12-02-2016 at 11:40 AM.
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