ECSNorway Wrote:The least-taxed first-world nation? Only on the direct, personal level.My view on these matters:
Corporate taxation in the US ranges between 40 and 50 percent, varying slightly by state. It is the single highest corporate tax rate in the world. And every penny of that gets passed on to the consumer in the form of higher prices, while corporations move overseas in order to take advantage of vastly lower labor costs in Asia and lower corporate tax rates in many countries.
You want to see the US economy get back to the juggernaut that won World War 2 by out-producing the entire world? Start working on bringing that back to us. And the only way to do -that- is to make it economical for companies to operate here. To show them that they can make, and keep, more by operating here than in some third-world hellhole.
You want to equalize our trade imbalance with China? Start exporting something we have far too many of already: union organizers. China, especially, needs them badly.
Yeah, maybe we should be easing up on the corporate tax rates... but only in the form of generous tax credits to companies that keep their interests in the country. The point is if we're gonna let them keep more money, then they need to be doing things with it that benefit the nation.
Oh, and I see what you did there with the whole unions thing. Chill. We do need unions, but I think they should be carefully regulated as well. The answer is not to throw the baby out with the bath here.
Also, there is plenty we can trade to China. Raw materials for one thing. They don't have the same lumber industry we do here, and are so badly in need of lumber that one company has started selling chopsticks to China with "Made in USA" stamped on them. No joke, here's the article: http://money.cnn.com/2011...opsticks/index.htm Gasoline would get them on our good side, too. Just imagine the business we'd drum up if instead of refining oil for ourselves we did it for China instead. Or even just selling our crude oil straight to them. Of course, that requires us to become energy independent, first. Something else we gotta fight the Republicans over. (Said it once and I'll say it again: clean coal is a joke.)
And that, people, is part of how we resolve the deficit issue. The other part is that we need to make careful and judicious cuts in government spending. Welfare needs to be streamlined and optimized towards getting people back to work instead of giving them a handout. Taxes against the wealthiest Americans need to be levied. Fat needs to be trimmed from the Military. Contractors must be severely penalized for not meeting their obligations. Debts must be repaid to our creditors.