I continue to hear that through tax incentives, less regulation, and closing tax loopholes, we’ll be able to create more jobs and put Americans back to work.
Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. It’s wishful thinking, in fact, it’s only pure hope, and for many years I’ve preached that “hope is not a strategy.”
In my previous column, I discussed the elimination of business tax loopholes by establishing a 20% flat tax for all corporations.
It’s simple, and it certainly meets the fairness test. Every other job creation proposal, from the incumbents to the wannabes, is simply noise. The real truth is a business has just so many available jobs, and currently, every job is filled.
A business owner is not going to overstaff just to be able to say they did their duty, it’s the revenue that must justify hiring additional workers. Therefore, the required action that must be implemented immediately needs to be directed specifically to the actual employees themselves.
A significant number of corporations from GE to Corning Incorporated, and from US Airways, Inc., to John Deere, would have hundreds of thousands of jobs available if they decided to fire their overseas workers, and bring those jobs back home.
When I make a telephone call in order to make an airline reservation, invariably I reach an employee in the Philippines. Why couldn’t that employee be located in Detroit, Michigan or Columbus, Ohio?
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Yes, it’s cheaper to keep those jobs in other countries, and bringing those jobs back to the U.S. would cost a fortune. So, I, much like the President, Jean-Claude Trichet, and Ben Bernanke, will defer to my next column on how to pay for the repatriation of U.S. jobs.
Make no mistake, this is not about repatriation of corporate dollars (tried unsuccessfully under President George W. Bush), this is about wholesale firing of overseas workers and re-establishing those jobs in the United States.
Will it challenge our relationship with other countries? Of course it will. However, imagine a “Help Wanted” sign in Corning, NY for 10,000 jobs. Think about the revitalization of the community, the region, the state, and even the country.
Now, picture this action being taken by every corporation across America. This strategy transcends Republicans, Democrats, conservatives and liberals, union or non-union. This policy should be referred to as the U.S. Jobs Repatriation Act, and it’s definitely a course of action that every single American should embrace wholeheartedly.
In my next column I’ll discuss how to pay for it.
John Ransom | Create Your Badge
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