I can’t hold back any longer. There is nothing more specious as this rah-rah belief that Donald Trump and his business (ahem) skills will bring jobs back to America. You know, those plants and jobs that manufacturers have moved to Mexico, the Philippines, China –you name it.
People who believe this do not understand the way business works. So let me help you, since I’ve worked in manufacturing industries. Let’s begin here: Businesses do not do anything unless it helps them create more revenue and even more important, more profit.
Jobs move to other countries because the cost of labor etc there is FAR lower. FAR, FAR lower.
Before we get all crazy about how little workers in other countries make we could consider their economies and cost of living, which in most cases don’t resemble ours. But this isn’t a post about that.
Today, though, consider what it would mean if it COST MORE TO MAKE THE PRODUCTS that are part of our every day life.
These countries don’t excessively tax businesses the way our government does, either, and they provide lots of tax incentives. That means that the overall lower cost of manufacturing in many other countries is more than compelling, it is a godsend to businesses who want a good return on their investment.
That, my friends, is the bottom line. You can wave the flag all you want over bringing jobs back, but it ain’t gonna happen.
So think it through:
Moving jobs back to the significantly more expensive United States means that consumers–you and I– will PAY SIGNIFICANTLY MORE for our products.
Are you willing to pay double or more what you pay for your smart phone? Your TV? Your car? Your clothing? Your computer? Would you pay $800 for an Iphone, for example? $1,400 for an Ipad?
I didn’t think so.
As a financially secure professional I know said to me the other day, “I can pay double or more for my phone or TV. But all the Trump fans falling for this are going to be mighty surprised at what is no longer affordable, if he really made this happen. In a way, I kind of wish he could so that they would see what it really means. But, of course, he can’t bring those jobs back any more than he can make a unicorn real.”
There is no way a business interested in profitability is going to move those jobs back to the United States and there is no way the people of this country will enjoy paying more for their “necessities.”
It’s all well and good to spout rhetoric about keeping jobs here and “making American great”, but this, my friends, is the reality. And the common sense of it. And guess what? I’ll bet you Trump knows that. Absolutely.
It is a manipulation, people.
If you’re ok with it? Support Trump.
If you didn’t realize this? Join the club of many others in your shoes and from here on out, don’t fall for these simplistic slogans he spouts that are ridiculous and have no chance of being put in place.
Being personally rich has absolutely nothing to do with your ability to govern or even your knowledge of what is possible Constitutionally, legally, procedurally and what is not.
I can’t help but think that Trump supporters are uninformed about the facts. I’d hate to think they were delusional.
This morning, I was out before dark driving to an appointment. Along the way I saw numerous hispanic men, riding bicycles on dimly lit roads to get to work, or at least to a point where they might be selected to work at some manual labor related position.
When Trump builds his beautiful wall, how many people will be there, shaping up for a job in the dark?
We were in a real jam, we had a wedding in our backyard the next day and more work than we could handle. there was no one left we could ask so my husband and my son went to home depot to ask the men who hang around there to help with the work. we have never done this before….and we will never do it again. it was about 3 in the afternoon and we offered $10 an hour. to a man they would not even consider anything less than $20 ah hour. my son speaks Spanish so there wasn’t a miscommunication. it was discouraging and eye opening.
THANK YOU. The same thing happens with minimum wage hikes. When they raise the minimum wage, guess what? The cost of day care raised because they had to pay their employees more. You expressed this so well. Loved this piece.
isn’t that the way business works? when the developers next to me were forced by the city to annex thus causing some monumental new costs, they just shrugged and said they just pass the cost along. the annexation was unnecessary, just a power play by a greedy government.
I thought similar. His plan is one of those that sounds good so he can get elected but just isn’t gonna happen. If we want to change how businesses do business, we have to change how we support those businesses.
He’ll be gone soon, but there’s still the question of, “If not him, who?” and there’s no one in that clown car that understands any of this better than he does. NO one. We are watching the end of the GOP. Maybe there will be sanity on the other side. Colin Powell said yesterday, “I won’t leave the party because I know how it annoys them.”
Anyone with half a brain annoys them.
b
yesterday the jobs report was horrible. how much longer can we do this? More people need to start businesses and the government needs to let them have a grace period before they sock them with enormous taxes. and when will the government stop saying the economy is doing well? any first year economic student knows better
Yes, companies want to maximize profit, but on the backs of who? If the middle class (which is a very wide range) made more money, they would have more to spend. I am not an economist, but it makes sense to me that if more money was shared among more people, the entire economy would rise. I am NOT a Trump supporter. Or really any of those who actually believe that trickle-down (a/k/a voodoo) economics is something that will work. Demand is what drives the economy. And if average people have less and less to spend, demand goes down. We who are squeezed in the middle, spend more and more of our money on the necessities of life leaving us with little to no discretionary income.
If you have a 401K or any stock market investments, you are dependent on corporate profit. That is the bottom line. The middle class will never make enough money to pay for what it would cost to build goods in American. Never. It just can’t happen. Yep, very complex.
I have never gotten a job from a poor person. That is my definition of trickle down economics. when people have money they spend it. when people don’t have money they cook for themselves, they don’t buy flowers and they sure don’t hire caterers. not all of my clients are wealthy, but none of my clients are poor. So whatever the definition of trickle down is to you, that is what it is to me. Since my business has gotten business I can hire people to work for me, I can get my dog groomed, my house cleaned and my clothes dry cleaned. When we get work, everyone else gets work. My dear friends who are salaried do not understand….my husband used to be a salary guy, but if his bottom line didn’t improve he would have been fired. I am not a big business person, I am in survival mode. But I am too old to get a job that will pay enough for us to live, my husband also. so we started a business out of necessity. and it has been the hardest thing we have ever done, sometimes I sit and weep at how things have turned out. But then I get off my ass and go back to work, because I will not give up.
The republican party is a disaster. I thought Trump would show up, say a few dumb things and go away. Why is he still around? What is his charm? Maybe people like his hair??
I do not understand how people do not see through the “Trumpisms”. Sadly, much of the voting populace is under- or uneducated and so it is relatively easy to pull the wool over their eyes, but I have run into any number of Trump supporters of late who do not fall into that category, they seem to like the rhetoric, the message. While Trump holds no appeal for me — I find him neither charming nor forthright — I shudder to think that there are intelligent people who are willing to vote for him simply because he amuses them. That’s not the job of a President of the United States. That is a job for a stand-up comic. Frankly, I don’t find him funny, either. It’s frightening, really.
i was so angry when the chocolate factory at Hershey, PA gave up and moved to Mexico. I think
The employees were given the choice whether to move or stay, but who knows if that was true. All
I know that the candy that everyone grew up with
Was moving out of the country. But so would I!
From the taxes that they had to pay, it’s horrible!
But all your employees go through this move and where does the tax savings go? I doubt they go to the employees that moved so they could fly home once a year to visit family. They promised the companies that moved a tax break and some of them did come back, only for the Gov’t to raise the taxes again when they came back. We’ve got a lot of work to do! Kisses, Harry
I’m no longer buying any Hershey candy because of this move! UFB! Also, I wouldn’t be buying any meds from Mexico, either.
Thanks for the information Harry, and good luck.
The problem with giving corporate tax breaks is the you end up subsidizing billion-dollar companies on the backs of the workers. And local governments don’t get the money they need to provide schools, roads, libraries and a host of other things. Think about that the next time it takes an hour for a cop to show and take your report.
the government needs to get out of the way. the hoops business is forced to jump through is ridiculous. they make demands on small businesses that are punitive. I know how much work is coming to las vegas because of my role has a planning commissioner and none, none, is coming. how much longer can the private sector support government? there will be a time when there is no one to collect taxes from. then what will they do? I am having the hardest time with any of the candidates. I want someone who has started a business, had to meet a payroll, worked 20 hours to get a job done, without overtime, without a pension. I have never taken Trump seriously, but I know people who are so fed up they will vote for him. I have no where to look…there is no one for me to vote for. Not a single candidate…
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This morning, I was out before dark driving to an appointment. Along the way I saw numerous hispanic men, riding bicycles on dimly lit roads to get to work, or at least to a point where they might be selected to work at some manual labor related position.
When Trump builds his beautiful wall, how many people will be there, shaping up for a job in the dark?
We were in a real jam, we had a wedding in our backyard the next day and more work than we could handle. there was no one left we could ask so my husband and my son went to home depot to ask the men who hang around there to help with the work. we have never done this before….and we will never do it again. it was about 3 in the afternoon and we offered $10 an hour. to a man they would not even consider anything less than $20 ah hour. my son speaks Spanish so there wasn’t a miscommunication. it was discouraging and eye opening.
OMG I had a seriously similar thought yesterday. Yes.
THANK YOU. The same thing happens with minimum wage hikes. When they raise the minimum wage, guess what? The cost of day care raised because they had to pay their employees more. You expressed this so well. Loved this piece.
Thanks, Rachel!
isn’t that the way business works? when the developers next to me were forced by the city to annex thus causing some monumental new costs, they just shrugged and said they just pass the cost along. the annexation was unnecessary, just a power play by a greedy government.
I thought similar. His plan is one of those that sounds good so he can get elected but just isn’t gonna happen. If we want to change how businesses do business, we have to change how we support those businesses.
Exactly.
He’ll be gone soon, but there’s still the question of, “If not him, who?” and there’s no one in that clown car that understands any of this better than he does. NO one. We are watching the end of the GOP. Maybe there will be sanity on the other side. Colin Powell said yesterday, “I won’t leave the party because I know how it annoys them.”
Anyone with half a brain annoys them.
b
Oh yeah. So true.
yesterday the jobs report was horrible. how much longer can we do this? More people need to start businesses and the government needs to let them have a grace period before they sock them with enormous taxes. and when will the government stop saying the economy is doing well? any first year economic student knows better
Yes, companies want to maximize profit, but on the backs of who? If the middle class (which is a very wide range) made more money, they would have more to spend. I am not an economist, but it makes sense to me that if more money was shared among more people, the entire economy would rise. I am NOT a Trump supporter. Or really any of those who actually believe that trickle-down (a/k/a voodoo) economics is something that will work. Demand is what drives the economy. And if average people have less and less to spend, demand goes down. We who are squeezed in the middle, spend more and more of our money on the necessities of life leaving us with little to no discretionary income.
If you have a 401K or any stock market investments, you are dependent on corporate profit. That is the bottom line. The middle class will never make enough money to pay for what it would cost to build goods in American. Never. It just can’t happen. Yep, very complex.
I have never gotten a job from a poor person. That is my definition of trickle down economics. when people have money they spend it. when people don’t have money they cook for themselves, they don’t buy flowers and they sure don’t hire caterers. not all of my clients are wealthy, but none of my clients are poor. So whatever the definition of trickle down is to you, that is what it is to me. Since my business has gotten business I can hire people to work for me, I can get my dog groomed, my house cleaned and my clothes dry cleaned. When we get work, everyone else gets work. My dear friends who are salaried do not understand….my husband used to be a salary guy, but if his bottom line didn’t improve he would have been fired. I am not a big business person, I am in survival mode. But I am too old to get a job that will pay enough for us to live, my husband also. so we started a business out of necessity. and it has been the hardest thing we have ever done, sometimes I sit and weep at how things have turned out. But then I get off my ass and go back to work, because I will not give up.
The republican party is a disaster. I thought Trump would show up, say a few dumb things and go away. Why is he still around? What is his charm? Maybe people like his hair??
It IS a disaster. And he is delusional.
I do not understand how people do not see through the “Trumpisms”. Sadly, much of the voting populace is under- or uneducated and so it is relatively easy to pull the wool over their eyes, but I have run into any number of Trump supporters of late who do not fall into that category, they seem to like the rhetoric, the message. While Trump holds no appeal for me — I find him neither charming nor forthright — I shudder to think that there are intelligent people who are willing to vote for him simply because he amuses them. That’s not the job of a President of the United States. That is a job for a stand-up comic. Frankly, I don’t find him funny, either. It’s frightening, really.
Agree.
No, those jobs aren’t coming back, but I certainly hope people’s common sense does. Jeez. What a wind bag.
I’ve seen iPhones selling for more than $800 already – they’d go up to nearly $2,000!
Yep.
i was so angry when the chocolate factory at Hershey, PA gave up and moved to Mexico. I think
The employees were given the choice whether to move or stay, but who knows if that was true. All
I know that the candy that everyone grew up with
Was moving out of the country. But so would I!
From the taxes that they had to pay, it’s horrible!
But all your employees go through this move and where does the tax savings go? I doubt they go to the employees that moved so they could fly home once a year to visit family. They promised the companies that moved a tax break and some of them did come back, only for the Gov’t to raise the taxes again when they came back. We’ve got a lot of work to do! Kisses, Harry
I’m no longer buying any Hershey candy because of this move! UFB! Also, I wouldn’t be buying any meds from Mexico, either.
Thanks for the information Harry, and good luck.
It wasn’t Hershey’s fault…it was our governments fault, and maybe someone in Mexico will have a decent job.
The problem with giving corporate tax breaks is the you end up subsidizing billion-dollar companies on the backs of the workers. And local governments don’t get the money they need to provide schools, roads, libraries and a host of other things. Think about that the next time it takes an hour for a cop to show and take your report.
the government needs to get out of the way. the hoops business is forced to jump through is ridiculous. they make demands on small businesses that are punitive. I know how much work is coming to las vegas because of my role has a planning commissioner and none, none, is coming. how much longer can the private sector support government? there will be a time when there is no one to collect taxes from. then what will they do? I am having the hardest time with any of the candidates. I want someone who has started a business, had to meet a payroll, worked 20 hours to get a job done, without overtime, without a pension. I have never taken Trump seriously, but I know people who are so fed up they will vote for him. I have no where to look…there is no one for me to vote for. Not a single candidate…