This blog uses simple 4th grade math so don't worry.
First, let's take a look at Obamacare. The USA, before Obamacare was spending 17% of our GNP on medical. That is the highest of any country in the world and that money is buried in the products that we produce. If we make a pair of shoes, the 17% medical is part of the cost of those shoes. Remember that we used to make 99% of our own shoes, but now it is down to less than 5%. Ask yourself "why"? It now appears clear that we are up to at least 20% of our GNP under Obamacare and it is likely to go as high as 25%. That means that every thing we make and try to export is going to cost that much more. Don't people realize this? When we import a product from some place like Mexico, they don't have this 20% extra Obamacare cost added to their products. That is just one reason that many of our companies are closing plants here and moving to Mexico.
Here is another one. Take social security. The company pays 7% of the labor cost and the employee matches with another 7% for a total of 14% and that is not even enough to pay the benefits. I don't know what the real number needed is, but it has to be at least 18% or 20%. All this extra cost has to be added onto the products made here like the pair of shoes. Just in these two items alone, we are talking about as much as 35% or about 1/3 of the cost of a pair of shoes. I can tell you that none of the countries that we import shoes from has this kind of penalty on their shoe manufacturers.
Why don't we hear anything from Obama, Clinton or Trump about adding the above cost to imports so that our shoe makers are treated equally? If all products were charged the same amount whether made here or in another country, it would add about 25% to imports and reduce the cost of shoes made here by at least 15%. That is a "swing" of almost 40%. Are you starting to see how significant this is in leveling the playing field? What we are doing is taxing and killing jobs here while we give a free ride to imports. I don't know of a single country in the world that is as stupid as we are. The only people who come out ahead with our current system are the "retailers" and look at what they pay their "clerks"? Amazon is even going one step farther and cutting out the "clerk" all together. You might make money in the stock market with Amazon stock, but it is killing the economy of the USA at the same time.
I am going to repeat it here. How much does Amazon "export" to help us pay our bills? Zero!!! Amazon kills jobs here in the USA while making it easier for imports to be sold here. Who is talking about that? A wall on the border is only a small part of the solution.
PS--Here is one for you. What if we treated the collection of taxes for building and maintaining our roads like we do for shoes? That would mean we would tax our domestic oil companies and let foreign oil come in tax free, Thank God we have a sales or consumption tax on gas so Saudi Arabia and other foreign oil companies share in the building and maintenance of our roads, We call it a "use" tax, but it is exactly the same as a consumption tax so imports pay their share!!!
First, let's take a look at Obamacare. The USA, before Obamacare was spending 17% of our GNP on medical. That is the highest of any country in the world and that money is buried in the products that we produce. If we make a pair of shoes, the 17% medical is part of the cost of those shoes. Remember that we used to make 99% of our own shoes, but now it is down to less than 5%. Ask yourself "why"? It now appears clear that we are up to at least 20% of our GNP under Obamacare and it is likely to go as high as 25%. That means that every thing we make and try to export is going to cost that much more. Don't people realize this? When we import a product from some place like Mexico, they don't have this 20% extra Obamacare cost added to their products. That is just one reason that many of our companies are closing plants here and moving to Mexico.
Here is another one. Take social security. The company pays 7% of the labor cost and the employee matches with another 7% for a total of 14% and that is not even enough to pay the benefits. I don't know what the real number needed is, but it has to be at least 18% or 20%. All this extra cost has to be added onto the products made here like the pair of shoes. Just in these two items alone, we are talking about as much as 35% or about 1/3 of the cost of a pair of shoes. I can tell you that none of the countries that we import shoes from has this kind of penalty on their shoe manufacturers.
Why don't we hear anything from Obama, Clinton or Trump about adding the above cost to imports so that our shoe makers are treated equally? If all products were charged the same amount whether made here or in another country, it would add about 25% to imports and reduce the cost of shoes made here by at least 15%. That is a "swing" of almost 40%. Are you starting to see how significant this is in leveling the playing field? What we are doing is taxing and killing jobs here while we give a free ride to imports. I don't know of a single country in the world that is as stupid as we are. The only people who come out ahead with our current system are the "retailers" and look at what they pay their "clerks"? Amazon is even going one step farther and cutting out the "clerk" all together. You might make money in the stock market with Amazon stock, but it is killing the economy of the USA at the same time.
I am going to repeat it here. How much does Amazon "export" to help us pay our bills? Zero!!! Amazon kills jobs here in the USA while making it easier for imports to be sold here. Who is talking about that? A wall on the border is only a small part of the solution.
PS--Here is one for you. What if we treated the collection of taxes for building and maintaining our roads like we do for shoes? That would mean we would tax our domestic oil companies and let foreign oil come in tax free, Thank God we have a sales or consumption tax on gas so Saudi Arabia and other foreign oil companies share in the building and maintenance of our roads, We call it a "use" tax, but it is exactly the same as a consumption tax so imports pay their share!!!
