You would think they would learn but Socialists don’t see any other way other than to tax, tax and tax some more:
The Governor of Utah’s (the state in which all these businesses are fleeing to) motto is “keep government off your back and out of your wallet.”
Now that is how you run a state, and a country.
Unfortunately our President is the exact opposite and is helping to speed up the exodus of business from our shores to overseas.
Good article via Dan Riehl:
For the second year in a row, a corporate relocation expert has ranked Utah as the second best pro-business state.
Chicago-based Ronald Pollina, whose annual Corporate Top 10 study evaluates job retention and creation by the 50 states and federal government, praised Utah as a state that serves as a model for the rest of the country.
Utah finished second to Virginia in the 2010 study, just as it did last year, followed by Wyoming, South Carolina and North Carolina. Rounding the top 10 are Nebraska, Kansas, South Dakota, Alabama and Missouri. California finished last for the seventh year.
The study uses 31 factors to rank states, including taxes, human resources, right-to-work legislation, energy costs, infrastructure spending, workers compensation laws and state economic development efforts.
“The effort to make America more business-friendly must come from all levels of government,” Pollina said in a news release. “Many states are doing such a poor job of creating a pro-business environment that they can’t even come close to competing with each other, much less compete globally.”
Lowering taxes, reducing regulations….common sense answers to the problem but nooooooo, instead we get “just tax them more” from Obama and company:
Promising a “renaissance in American manufacturing,” the Obama administration proposes “raising taxes on multinational corporations that Democrats accuse of shipping jobs overseas” (“New Democratic strategy for creating jobs focuses on a boost in manufacturing,” August 4).
Never mind that until the current downturn U.S. manufacturing output was at an all-time high and still growing. Even now it remains the largest in the world. The lie of U.S. manufacturing decline – repeated ad nauseam – conveniently paves the path for greater government control over the economy.
Instead focus on the plan to tax business actions that “ship jobs overseas” – that is, the plan to tax actions that economize on labor costs. Will Democrats seek also to tax, say, shipping containers? Over the past half-century, these humble boxes have put millions of high-paid longshoremen out of work. Perhaps the Democrats will tax also high-grade rubber tires: by enabling cars and trucks to travel farther on single sets of tires, the number of jobs in tire-manufacturing plants is reduced. Or maybe TeamObama will slap a punitive tax on electrical generators, for ready access to inexpensive electricity continues to encourage businesses to lower their costs by replacing human labor with machines.
Proponents think they are removing an incentive to do business overseas in what they call “tax havens.” In fact, increasing taxes on foreign profits will remove an incentive to do business here, especially if a majority of a company’s profits are generated overseas. The incentive will become to simply keep the profits abroad, or even to wholly shift operations there.
Four left-wing nonprofit groups, posing as small business advocates, estimate that closing this “tax gap” will generate $37 billion in new revenue from $149 billion of overseas profits.
But, instead of the federal government gaining $37 billion in revenue as supporters of the legislation pretend, the U.S. economy will more likely lose the $149 billion in capital flows that are never repatriated. Why?
This is essentially a tax on account transfers from any money earned overseas, or a tariff on capital flows, if you prefer. It’s a perverse incentive that will harm those capital flows back into the U.S., much of which are generated by exports. U.S. companies that operate overseas account for nearly half of all American exports, and employ 22 million people. But now they will be put at a woeful disadvantage to foreign competitors that will not be subject to similar double-taxation in thier home nations.
The liberals never learn. You make it hard to earn and to keep your money…people will leave.
Rumor out in sunshine land is Jelly Belly is outta CA if Moonbeam wins.
Adobe, EA, Intel all building new locations in Utah.
Hey I’m out here in CA – but Big Joe from the Ruling Class said everything is just fine, so I’ll sleep well tonight. He’s really bright. – Joe is. Really, he is. Just ask him.
Recovery Summer! Loving it.
@ Tom in CA,
Unfortunately for California, too many companies have moved operations out of the State over the past 20 years, and many receive some of their principal incomes streams through offshore entities and that cash stays there.
California is a good measure of the distrust of all levels of government by business, a distrust that is spreading across the country. Companies that hire in CA, hire independent contractors when they can, so that they don’t pay medical benefits for example. The stress to remain profitable with the weight of taxes and bureaucratic constraints is driving young companies and entrepreneurs either out of state or into the ground.
China, for one, is happy with these developments, and the ignorants believe corporate America is at fault.
Same thing is happening here in Oregon after the passgae of measures 66 and 67. ‘Pooregon’
the most progressive, regressive state in the country has passed one tax increase after another
by using scare tactics that the schools will crumble and there will be massive layoffs. The SEIU, OEA and other unions pushed and scared people here into passing tax increase after tax increase.
Did you know most public employees of the state of Oregon have ALL their benefits paid for? The entire family no less. On top of this we had over 100 fees increased. Plus Pooregon pays these workers through the PERS retirement accounts and system, one of the best in the country, and near the top in highest cost to the people who live in Pooregon.
Guess what the state of Pooregon just announced? They are still 640 MILLION dollars in the hole, afte all this. The feds want give the states another 10 billion dollars of debt on the back of our children to the states, with many strings, bad ones. Who has been in charge here in Pooregon the last 16 years? The demosocialistacrats. Get the picture? I do not mean to villefy state and public employees by these comments but this is not the reality we have in the private sector. I can think of eight or nine big companies that have fled Pooregon since all the above happened.
Many went to Idaho and Utah.
Leftists are not interested in “balancing the books” or making decisions which will benefit the people they intend to rule. Leftists wish only to advance the agenda of POWER, Marxist rule and domination. Profitable companies, employees who are able to support their families and pay for their homes make for LOUSY dependents!
It is humorous that California is steadily losing its movie industry to BC; however, the movie people are learning that Alberta has even less union problems and taxation and government nonsense to cause havoc. Just an example of how Arnold’s Utopia is killimg itself and becoming a Socialist nightmare, but there are great welfare benefits and the teachers have excellent salries.
johngalt, hi, I like to read your comments, because I have the assurance that I can beleive them,
WITH link there is a danger for some to come from many other SOURCES that could be questionable at their core. bye
I think my favorite part of all stories about raising taxes is the revenue increases they expect.
Um….DUH!!!! Happens every time. Reagan got BASHED for his deemed ‘voodoo economics’ by lowering the taxes considerably. What happened? The Govt brought in more money than it ever had!!! The sad part is, they take that money in and figure they HAVE to spend it, so they spend like drunken sailors on stupid pet projects and BS, then need MORE and MORE and wonder why the people get pissed.
OF the people, BY the people and FOR THE PEOPLE, you friggin morons.
@ Skook,
You’ll no doubt recall that Arnold campaigned for office and was elected based on the promise that he would not raise taxes, as the incumbent was planning, but he would instead float a $20 billion dollar debt (bond) to pay the bills. Cut the overhead? Never. Just increase the debt.
Californians wanted the lifestyle, but didn’t want to pay for it. Their genius plan, and Arnold’s, was to lay it off on the grandchildren.
It all worked out so well.
South Dakota shares a border with Minnesota. The Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce runs non-stop ads in Twin Cities media markets claiming your business could save a million dollars by moving across the border, and they can prove it.
But hey, we have the Minnesota Vikings who’ve nearly won several Superbowls and what do they have? Jobs? Please.
.
My take on this is a bit different. They seem to want to sell goods they’ve cheaply produced abroad–by dodging the costs associated with American labor–back to the very people whose wages they’re depressing and putting out of work.
Fine. Let them try turning a profit by selling their foreign-produced goods back to the same people who produce them, working for 20 cents an hour.
Where do they think the American market gets the money to buy the products they want to sell here? They obviously don’t believe the government should be giving anybody a nickel. Maybe they assume everybody should be living off private investment income?
When they depress or eliminate the wages of American workers, they’re undercutting the spending power of their own market. This only works only for so long as they manage stay ahead of the declining wage curve. Eventually, it comes back to bite them.
@ Greg,
I can’t help it, I just have to copy and paste this comment I made a couple of days ago @ Tallgrass & Johnglat, . . .
@ Tallgrass & Johngalt,
There seems little to gain in discussions with drive-by post-attackers like “Greg.”
He’s stuck somewhere deep in a lack of ability to grasp the complex elements that make up society, particularly a successful one.
He, like his leader, blames corporations for all manner of discomfort too difficult to fathom. None has managed any business, but could have learned much from running a lemonade stand. Their arguments are devoid of common sense and critical thinking.
He and his friends blame corporations for loss of jobs because factories have been moved to countries like China, outsourcing to cheap labor. He thinks it clever to suggest “Follow the money” but he doesn’t know how to do it. So, in effort to peer into the acuity of his analytical capacities, he and his friends should be asked the following:
- YOU purchased a computer, . . . where was it made?
- YOU purchased a desk to place it on, . . . where was it made?
- YOU purchased a chair to sit on, . . . where was it made?
- YOU purchased a car, . . . where was it made?
- YOU purchased numerous and sundry clothes, . . . where were they made?
- YOU purchased a TV, . . . where was it made?
- YOU purchased a cell phone, . . . where was it made?
- YOU purchased an mp3 player, . . . where was it made?
- YOU purchased a stove, a stove, a fridge, micro-wave oven, a dishwasher, a washer/dryer, . . . where were they made?
- YOU eat salmon produced in harvesting farms in China that damage their environments. . . . What? You didn’t know?
YOU purchased all these things made primarily in China. You spent borrowed money for goods made in China. Evidently, much of what you have earned has gone to China. Good for you. That computer you write with didn’t cost you $10,000, but cost you less than $2,000 because it was made in China. You had a choice. You made the decision.
YOU have enjoyed a higher standard of living because the Chinese government suppresses and abuses its people and allows its environment to be raped. A limited number of cleptocrats in Beijing thank you.
YOU enjoyed a higher standard of living knowing full well where everything came from, and yet in full Hypocrisy, you and your friends couldn’t abstain, . . . and you keep denigrating corporate America?
This sort of attitude, led flamboyantly by the Administration’s teleprompter, is simply pathetic. It either doesn’t grasp reality, or simply attributes blame without much thinking or analysis. . . . Or perhaps there’s another intent, altogether.
Like hell I did.
We’ve got around zero to say concerning where the products on the shelves of retail stores come from. We don’t even get to vote with our wallets often, because the choices generally aren’t there to be made.
When given a choice between an American made-product and one that isn’t, I opt for the American-made product. My truck was assembled in the United States, thank you very much, and at one time most of the things that I purchased were, too. Most of those choices have been taken away.
This wasn’t a decision made by the average American consumer. My guess is that a lot of people feel the same way I do. I remember the corporate resistance to country-of-origin labeling–a battle that has most recently been fought in the area of agricultural and farm produce. Those who resist know d-mn well that Americans prefer to buy American-made products, and frequently will, when the choice is before them. The obvious corporate solution has been to try to deprive American consumers of the information they need to differentiate.
“Simple-minded” Americans such as myself realize that this particular issue really isn’t too complex for our tiny little mainstream American brains to comprehend: When you import a flood of cheaply-made foreign goods, you export a flood of mainstream American jobs, and mainstream American wealth.
I don’t measure my standard of living entirely by the availability of cheap consumer products–nor is the fact lost on me that cheap is a word having multiple definitions, and that all of those definitions aren’t necessarily positive. There are many things once made here that were made better, with an intention of giving buyers more value and longer service for their money. That certainly doesn’t seem to be what they’re thinking now.
“We’ve got around zero to say concerning where the products on the shelves of retail stores come from.”
Come Greg, this is a rationalization, and you know it. Given your anger with corporate America, and notwithstanding your fear that you might have to admit you have enjoyed a standard of living you might not otherwise have, did you write to Wal-Mart and ask them to provide you a choice of “locally made” goods. No you didn’t.
Wal-Mart provides the consumer what the consumer wants, and what the consumer purchases, . . . and the consumer purchases the cheaper goods from China.
You have a choice. You are the one sending your borrowed dollars to an underpaid employee in a foreign land.
Unions have pretended to rail against Wal-Mart for years, meanwhile, all their members are the best customers Wal-Mart has.
“Unions have pretended to rail against Wal-Mart for years, meanwhile, all their members are the best customers Wal-Mart has.”
The average income of Wal-Mart shoppers is around $35,000 per year. Theoretically that might include a lot of union employees, since it’s pretty much equivalent to the average union service worker’s pay of $16.75 per hour. In any case, the average Wal-Mart shopper is doing better than the average full time Wal-Mart employee, who earns around $21,400 per year. For a family of 2, that’s below the national poverty level.
Wal-Mart cashiers are on the low end of the Wal-Mart pay scale. They earn only $8.85 per hour, or about $18,050 per year, full time–about half the average for a unionized service worker.
http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Employer=Wal-Mart_Stores,_Inc/Hourly_Rate
@Greg:
I have two grandchildren that work for Wal-Mart and I know my granddaughter in Colorado started at more than $8.85 an hour cashiering, I think I remember her saying it was $10 something per hour. Don’t know what my grandson started at per hour here, will ask him when he stops by today.
Granddaughter worked three days per week while in high school, transferred to a Wal-Mart in her college town and now will be down to two dpw, her choice. Both are part of the 66% of the Wal-Mart work force that are family second income earners.
Also don’t know if their self limiting hours in these entry level jobs influence the average yearly income statistics for Wal-Mart workers.
Included in the 66% are seniors, part-time homemakers, workers with disabilitied, etc. that are adding a second income to their household earnings, it’s their choice to work there.
A few weeks ago I was reading about why corporations go overseas. Some corporations that partner with overseas corporations are mandated by the countries to operate a facility there. Others move to where energy is more affordable and some move to where minerals/supplies are abundant. It’s not always to escape high taxes and wages but, as in the case of US companies moving from state to state to find a business friendly environment, it obviously happens.
MISSY: hi, I notice that WALLMART In CANADA, are selling many products made in the USA,also some by locals BUSINESS, I find they are good promoters of AMERICANS made stuffs,. bye
@Greg
There are several statements you have made here that I can contend with.
When you are only concerned with the big retail chains, or the more technological products, your statement has merit. However, there are literally hundreds of thousands of other products where one can vote with his/her wallet, and many of us do. The choices are there for us to make them.
The first part of this statement is mostly true, but is also misleading when coupled with the second sentence. For most Wal-mart employees, they are either young, and single, or they are an addition to a families’ total income. To be sure, there are employees working at Wal-mart who are the sole breadwinners in families’ of two or more, but that isn’t the norm. The statement you make gets broached nearly every time the issue of minimum wage is brought up, yet fails to fully engage in reality simply because of the issue of the young, single, inexperienced workers, and those who use income from the lower wage jobs to supplement their household’s total income.
I agree that companies want to dodge costs associated with American labor. I do not agree with your assertion that they are depressing the wages, or the jobs of the people they are trying to sell their products to. Your statements like this, of which you have made many here recently, belie a thought process that seeks to convince people that companies should be in the process of charity ahead of, or even instead of, making a profit. You fail to point out that without the motive, and availability for making a profit, there isn’t any reason whatsoever to either remain, or stay, in business.
A company’s sole reason for starting up, and providing either goods, or services, or both, to consumers is to make money(build wealth) for the owner, or, in the case of a publicly traded company, for the shareholders. When companies are faced with rising taxes, or rising costs of doing business, in one area, there are many things they can choose to do.
-Companies streamline manufacturing processes, by adding automation, and liberals decry the lost jobs.
-Companies move to different locales, oftentimes due to rising local or state taxes, and liberals decry the lost local/state jobs.
-Companies remove products that are, or soon will be, unprofitable, and liberals decry the lost jobs.
-Companies ask more work from employees, and remove unnecessary jobs, and liberals decry the lost jobs.
-Companies completely close shop, due to lack of profitability, and liberals decry the lost jobs.
Most of the actions that result in lost jobs at a company, or the lost jobs in an area for a company, are a result of governmental actions that directly, or indirectly, force a company to rethink their business plans, and make the necessary changes to remain profitable. Higher taxes, more regulation, wage mandates, import/export regulatory activity, etc., force companies to engage in actions that oftentimes lead to a loss of jobs. And liberals, such as yourself, rail against the companies and use insulting rhetoric such as “corporate greed” to vilify them, all in an effort to gain support for actions that will be even more detrimental to the American worker. Companies do not start to give jobs. They start to gain profit. Companies do not remain in business to keep employees in jobs. They remain in business to continue making profit. Companies do not close doors, either completely or in part, to shed jobs. They do so because they can no longer be profitable.
Your rhetoric, Greg, may not be purposeful in intent, but it is an assault on the integrity of everyone who has ever started, run, shutdown, or remained profitable, in a business venture. Sure, there are many dishonest, greedy people in this world. Most of them are politicians or Union managers, IMO. But by and large, most people in business are honest enough, and thoughtful enough, to engage in honest transactions between men, trading value for value, and doing so with the intent of building wealth for themselves, or in the case of corporations, for their shareholders.
One of the main problems is we no longer CREATE wealth (money).. we simple shove it around the table now…. tho we USED to be Number one at “Wealth Creation”…. How does one “create wealth”(money)?? For instance, you cut down a tree, and turn it into lumber. Then, take that $100 of wood, add $100 worth of hardware and finish.. and you have a desk now worth $800, you have “created” $600 of “wealth/value”….. my Tractor I use here, a 1944 Ford 9n… (64 years old, and runs good, hows THAT for value!) had every part made HERE, in the USA…. the STEEL was made here, the castings, every mechanical part, made here. Income tax on the LABOR was paid here… wealth was created… from raw materials and component parts manufacturing…
Greg, your truck was “assembled” in the USA… mostly from foreign made steels… WHO made the engine in it? The Transmission was made in what Asian country….the brakes, axles, etc etc… the electrical components came from what foreign country?? You getting it yet?? We are letting all the OTHER guys “create and keep” the WEALTH….. and we pay with money gotten from someone else…. our TAX PAYER BASE is shrinking daily,(No JOBS, no PAID INCOME TAXES) and the Liberals want to keep spending like it’s lottery win day!!! Spending with WHAT???? The Govs trade policy is ensuring we have less and less money to PAY for anything, and it’s getting less and less as each day goes by!!!! It COSTS TOO MUCH to make the stuff here… WHY?? #1 Problem?? GOVERNMENT! Too many regs, to many taxes… too much of Uncle Sam in the WAY……. If we don’t fix this, FAST… we’re done Greg…. simple fact. The Jig, is UP!!!
@Hankster
In simple terms, the democrats are shooting themselves in the foot when it comes to taxes. The increase the taxes on business, and companies move wholesale divisions, or the location of their suppliers, overseas. Less tax revenue, even as they are claiming revenue increases from the increased taxes themselves.
The same goes with individuals. They increase taxes on the people who create the majority of jobs, and those people keep the money that is left to themselves. Less tax revenue, even as they are claiming revenue increases from the taxes themselves.
And they keep doing this over, and over and over.
Ignorance is one thing. Insanity and idiocy is quite another.