My firearms have NEVER killed another person. Nor will they EVER kill another person. In fact, I don't know ANY firearm that has ever killed another person.
However, there are PLENTY of people who seek to kill others, either through negligence or malice. The choice of tool is irrelevant; the user of the tool is what matters.
Actually, tax rates could be adjusted to bring highly skilled jobs back.
You could reduce the tax rates to zero and it would have at most a marginal impact. The biggest driver by far is wages and benefits.
Really? Labor costs in China of something like an iPhone or an Xbox are around $6; in the US it would be about $25 more (based upon productivity of the typical US worker versus the typical Chinese worker; it's not a 1-to-1 conversion). The cost of corporate income tax on that $300 product is well in excess of the increase. A huge amount of the offshoring I've been involved in has been because of corporate income taxation; in the case of the aforementioned iPhone, it's $120 for the US-built and sold unit, versus effectively zero for the China-built and sold unit.
If labor rates in China rise substantially (and they have been) you will see the business move back across the Pacific or elsewhere. Anything the President of Congress does will be a very tiny impact by comparison.
You are already most of China's business run out of Hong Kong or Singapore (both of which enjoy special privileges with China in terms of setting up shop) because of the tax-free advantage your company has. You only pay tax on the work done within HK or Singapore; manufacture in China, sell through HK or Singapore and you save a ton of cash.
Actually, tax rates could be adjusted to bring highly skilled jobs back. Corporate tax rates are rather high in the US, especially when compared to the other G20 nations. Cut the corporate income tax rate down to a reasonable level (the average of the EU, or the G20) - or better yet, eliminate it as corporate taxes are a small percentage of the total Federal revenues - and you'll see highly skilled, hard-to-automate jobs flood back into the US.
And that is something the President and Congress are most definitely in control of - taxation.
Hi there, previous China resident for 6 years, and now spend half-time there... Heavily involved in manufacturing within China.
There is a HUGE push towards automation within China, mainly as a means to lower costs (to stay competitive with Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand) as well as to increase quality. A serious issue under consideration from most of the provincial-and-down Governments is employment (not so much with the Beijing elite, yet) - job growth is stagnating in the face of automation. I've seen dozens of factories move from highly manual production lines of 60-70 workers per line to semi-and-fully automated lines where you need 3-4 workers per line to keep the machines fed.
One supplier in particular, just outside of Shanghai, is proud of the fact it's been able to automate their assembly of speakers to such a degree that they have reduced workforce by 70% - whilst reducing floorspace by 50% and INCREASING production volumes and revenues by 30%. All within the last 3 years. Profit is also up considerably, and as they are a publicly traded company (listed on the Shanghai exchange), their stock has seen significant gains in the last 3 years.
China is heavily automating, not just for cost but for quality. Employees come in hung over, pissed off at their boyfriend (most assembly lines are staffed with women), tired, or sick - and quality/consistency suffers. Machines don't have those issues. You get higher quality - which means fewer rejects, leaner operations, and happier customers. It is only a matter of time before the other SE Asian countries start their path towards automation as well as a means to combat China's increasing quality push. Lower cost labor won't help there...
"The one charm of marriage is that it makes a life of deception a neccessity." - Oscar Wilde
