From: cole@farmhand.rtp.dg.com (Bill Cole)
Subject: Re: Industrial Policy
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 92 13:52:48 GMT
Organization: Data General Corporation, Research Triangle Park, NC

David Marc Nieporent Bill Cole:
|> >I keep hearing that we may or may not 'need' an industrial policy
|> >in America.  Well, folks, we already have one.  It's embodied in
|> >the various tax codes and budgets.
|> 
|> This is not what people mean when they say industrial policy.  They mean
|> something like MITI.  Not a random collection of tax breaks put in place
|> to please lobbyists.

You're right.  It would be better if we had a coherent, well thought out
policy, but until that happens I maintain that we have a de facto policy.
And it's one we generally wouldn't want if it were enunciated as a whole
in public.

|> >It looks like this:
|> >1. Export jobs.  Companies get tax breaks for exporting jobs to
|> >Puerot Rico and other non-US venues.
|> 
|> Well, you can take all the rest of this drivel with a grain of salt,
|> given what Mr. Cole here has demonstrated about his knowledge of geography.  
|> 
|> Puerto Rice is non-US?  *That* would come as a big surprise to them.

Yup, Puerto Rico is US territory for SOME purposes, but for tax purposes it's
a foreign country.  US companies acutally get a tax break for taking jobs out
of the domestic economy and relocating them to Mexico.  I would hope that you
find that at least annoying.  Relocating jobs is not benign, David.  Real
people have those jobs; real people lose those jobs.  And then the federal
government adds insult to insult by giving the company a tax break which the
worker has to make up out his or her pocket.  Is that good policy?

|> >2. Import low-wage workers and export their pay.  In the face of
|> >massive layoffs, we continue to import workers.  The theory is 
|> >that a green card is given to someone with a 'special' skill.
|> >Nonsense.  We import computer science people and engineers into
|> >an economy that can't productively employ the ones we've got.
|> 
|> Of course.  The problem with this country is too many skilled workers.

Cute response, but meaningless.  We are importing labor to do jobs without
regard to the folks here who could fill the job but can't.  This isn't
stoop labor, David.  We've laid off massive numbers (~250k people in 
computing alone) and those folks need a place in the economy.  many wind up
under-employed while companies are importing cheap labor or exporting jobs
to India, Ireland, etc.

|> >3. You're locked into your job.  This is pretty clever.  You can
|> >deduct education expenses to get better at your current job, but 
|> >not for getting a new job.  Hell, one man lost his unemployment
|> >benefits for enrolling in school to get into a different field.
|> >We don't retrain folks.  We just forget 'em.
|> 
|> >4. Allow other countires to tear down our industries without a
|> >fight.  This happens regularly.  Motorcycles (Harley Davidson)
|> >are an example of what can happen if the government cooperates 
|> >with an industry to get that industry back up to speed.  Reagan
|> >damned near killed machine tools.  And semiconductors.........
|> 
|> Oh, yes.  Or Chrysler.  Now *there's* a good example of what happens
|> when the government helps pathetic, inefficient companies by hurting
|> American consumers.

That's a waste of bandwidth and you know it.  Chrysler is a non-example
in this case.  H-D was in sad shape and admitted it.  They've done a good
job getting back into the world economy.  Heavy equipment, airframes and
machine tools are places where we've lost a competitive edge thanks to
governmental policies and ideology.

|> David M. Nieporent              |ALEast 92: 1.Baltimore 2.Boston 3.Toronto
|> niepornt@phoenix.princeton.edu  |4. Detroit 5.Milwaukee 6.NY 8.Cleveland
|> 
|> "Baseball stathead, and card-carrying member of the ACLU.  And proud of it."
                                                       ^^^^^
                                                      Good on yuh, mate.
                                                    
/Bill
To do right, love kindness & walk humbly
Newsgroups: alt.politics.elections