AMERICA CAN DO IT AGAIN: Competing With Low Wage Foreign Providers
The U.S.A. has some of the highest wage-costs in the world. In addition, many American employers provide relatively high-cost fringe benefits.
In our free-trade environment, how can we hope to compete with low-cost foreign providers of labor-intensive goods and services?
The only way is to make sure that other cost factors are competitive. For example, energy costs could be considerably lower than at the present time if the U.S. would fully exploit its superabundance of energy in the ground and below the sea. This means developing our coastal energy, reopening the Gulf, exploiting the Alaskan fields, approving the Keystone Pipeline, and developing government owned land. It is reported that the U.S. has more energy in the ground than any area of the world. So why don’t we go get it?
In addition, to be competitive, we should lower taxes on industry to an absolute minimum. U.S. corporate taxes are, in fact, the highest in the world. They are passed on to customers in the form of higher prices. By reducing taxes, American industry could compete more effectively with foreign competitors.
There are, of course, other remedies to the negative balance of trade problem facing our nation. One solution is to curtail the GROWTH of imports. Frankly, it is a no-brainer solution and one that could be implemented in months rather than years. It would, however, require the United States to modify some trade agreements; but this would be well worth renegotiating to achieve balance of trade and put U.S. workers back to work, producing the goods and services that Americans require.
The absence of economic leadership under the Obama Administration is deplorable. President Obama’s Fabian Socialistic approach doesn’t work and is outdated. Clearly, history has demonstrated that competitive, free-market, constitutional, free-enterprise will produce the highest level of prosperity for the greatest number.
Image: https://www.dfat.gov.au/embassies.html
