The American industrial base
has relocated to international locales and a concern of the military is that we
may not have enough local industry to produce defense equipment in its entirety
here in America. On the Spring Break
trip’s visit to Boeing Headquarters, we learned that Boeing has over 20 foreign
partners that help build one of its airplanes.
Defense contractors also outsource.
Along with that comes the concern that foreign corporations are also
learning technological and industrial secrets and with their penchants for
reverse engineering, gaining technological advantage as well.
Obama has been championing
re-industrialization of America or “in-sourcing”. I wonder how he will win over corporate
America, though – ObamaCare is a disincentive to reindustrialization. With the
second highest corporate tax rates in the world at 39.2 percent (combined
federal and state taxes), some economists have likened it to an economic Berlin
Wall around the US. Government.
Government regulations (EPA and OSHA mostly) have shut down many
businesses and there are other government mandates that make business in
America unattractive.
The President wants to create
jobs – our unemployment rate is 8.1 percent, with 12.5 million unemployed. Even though the private sector gained 130,000
new jobs and the government (en toto) cut 15,000 posts in March, the number of
unemployed people didn’t change. What’s
interesting about this is that those who haven’t been able to find jobs in the
last six months are now at 41.3 percent of the total unemployed. American workers don’t seem to be interested
in blue collar work, either, though, so this in itself is a disincentive to
reindustrialization. Americans want high pay, benefits and easy work – the
product of a consumption lifestyle. This 41.3 percent is not interested in the
hard work of creating jobs and will instead be looking for government handouts
(unemployment benefits, additional strain on (Medicaid/Medicare).
Le Monde Diplomatique reports
that Europe has been hoping for the last twenty years to reach a
“post-industrial Leisure society”. French elections are protesting against the
deindustrialization of France and Europe is realizing that they can’t afford
the American consumption lifestyle that we exported. American politicians have yet to realize that
we can’t afford it either, as they aren’t slashing the government jobs that
prevent industrialization from re-entering America.