Trump vows to tax businesses 35% if they ship jobs overseas. In theory, that sounds pretty reasonable to me. But this will also mean the prices of items/goods created and made in the U.S. will rise, mostly likely by quite a bit. That said, if people aren’t ALSO being paid substantially more, they will buy from overseas businesses anyway. Seems to me, we need to work at the problem from both ends. We should tax businesses for shipping jobs, but we should ALSO give tax breaks to businesses that pay their employees a decent wage. Perhaps the more they pay their workers, the more of a tax break they receive—a percentage.
I’m also thinking that if we gave stores a tax break for selling U.S. made goods, they might be more likely to carry U.S. made goods. Similarly, maybe the percentage of sales tax on goods made in U.S. be less than anything made overseas.
For decades, I have been a huge proponent for buying locally. (I gave a speech in college regarding why shopping at places like Walmart was destroying small towns and local businesses; that the more the local dollar ships out to other states, the worse the locals fair.) I would love to see more items be made in the U.S. And I would pay more for an item made in the U.S. But that’s a luxury I have. Many folks don’t have that luxury. We need to make it so MORE folks who want to buy locally, can afford to buy locally. We need to pay people more. We need to give an incentive to businesses to make that happen.
So go ahead and tax businesses 35%, but we need to pay the people working for said bluenesses more as well. I believe most people are good and care about the people around them. If we give everyone the ability to spend their dollar wisely and locally, I truly believe that every single party involved will be a lot happier and healthier.
I’m a laymen at best. But he needs to make MORE changes from both ends. And then? I’m all for it.
I don’t know how we’re going to fix this. If we pay people more, and we should, corporations are going to look for cheaper labor elsewhere. If we give them even bigger tax breaks, that eventually comes out of our pockets and so we have less money to buy goods. It probably can’t be done but I wouldn’t be against some kind of law that an American business has to do a certain percentage of its manufacturing in America otherwise it is not an American business and is not entitled to the benefits of America. Trump is picking on Boeing now. They sell planes to China but they manufacture here. I don’t know if they do all of their manufacturing here. I know they have many plants throughout the country because my husband’s family have all worked for them. If they don’t do it all here, they do most of it here and are one of the biggest, if not the biggest, employers in Washington state. We can keep chasing the dog. Raising pay, cutting Corporate taxes, raising pay, cutting taxes…. or figure out a way that we can compete so manufacturers don’t WANT to go overseas. But that’s hard to do when they utilize slave labor over there. We’re very connected globally now with our ability to travel and communicate so it can’t be denied. This is going to do down in history like the Industrial Revolution did. Just talking out loud. I don’t know the answer but I am worried.