http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-20014563-38.html

 

Interesting read on state of our affairs... 

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- Независимость - это когда в 20-й раз наступаешь на одни и те же грабли, а русские уже ни при чем....

Not really. Mr. Paul Otellini is the top Intel executive, a shill for the industry. There is a reason Intell is being investigated for anti-competitive practices here in the US and in Europe. What does he expect? No pollution laws like in China? Or child labor like in Indonesia? He is the poster boy for unchecked corporatism. Look at his picture, it's due to the people like Mr. Paul Otellini, and the moneygrabbing "industrialists" that he represents that we are in such bad state of affairs. Large corporates like Intel were unchecked for decades. They have lobbied each of every one of their whims and tax breaks through. Now that they are told enough is enough they are complaining??? Instead of having decency and foresight to help out. Intel can go *** itself, and I hope the act involves Otellini's butt rape as well.

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Sic semper tyrannis
~War is Peace~Freedom is Slavery~Ignorance is Strength~ George Orwell "1984"

So much information condensed into a paragraph, Anton, and not a single objection to the substance of the article  

Butt rape is a nice touch though, you really got him on that one..

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"The trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money" -Margaret Thatcher

Well, I must give Otellini credit that at least he is not suggesting that Bush Tax Cuts should be extended.  

However, if Otellini is right, then why were there more jobs created in the tech sector back in the 90s as opposed to now?  I am pretty sure corporate tax rate was the same.  

To finish on the issue of taxes, we have a spending problem here in US.  I'd like taxes to be lower.  I'd like my taxes to be lower.  In fact, I don't want to pay any taxes of any kind.  However, government spends a lot, a lot more in fact, then taxes bring in.  In order to reduce tax rates (personal or corporate) we need to bring government spending under control (good luck with that).  

If we reduce corporate income tax without reducing government spending we are going to end up in the same situation as Ireland.  Many high-tech companies moved their production and R&D over the last ten years because of the lower corp. tax rates there.   However, Irish government continued to spend and now Ireland is in a serious financial trouble.

 

As far as government regulations as far as building a fab go I think environmental concerns would be the biggest issue (semiconductor fabs use toxic chemicals).  Otellini never specifies exactly what the issues are.  There is a link there to an interview with T.J. Rogers of Cypress Semiconductor and he says that:  "The killer factor in California for a manufacturer to create, say, a thousand blue-collar jobs is a hostile government that doesn't want you there and demonstrates it in thousands of ways, through bureaucrats and regulations.  ....  The zoning ordinances and environmental ordinances are a classic example. I guarantee you that nobody truly understands them, and no plant can meet all of them simultaneously. "  

However, Rogers also says that governments in other places (like Texas and Minnesota) are more welcoming.  

 

In conclusion, here is an interesting segment I saw on my favorite news program (Fareed Zakaria GPS) 

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2010/08/22/gps.what.in.the.world.germany.cnn 

Germany is doing surprisingly well in the current crisis.   

 

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Sasha

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Too many people debate as if the point is to show who is smarter, rather than which conclusion is correct.

Egor:

So much information condensed into a paragraph, Anton, and not a single objection to the substance of the article  

Butt rape is a nice touch though, you really got him on that one..

What substance? The usual anti-Keneysian arguments? The general statements that US is anti-business? I hear it all day in my office too, and I do find this disturbing. Businesses are awarded too much power in this country. Don't you see it?

At one study, the Government Accountability Office said 72 percent of all foreign corporations and about 57 percent of U.S. companies doing business in the United States paid no federal income taxes for at least one year between 1998 and 2005. More than half of foreign companies and about 42 percent of U.S. companies paid no U.S. income taxes for two or more years in that period, the report said. During that time corporate sales in the United States totaled $2.5 trillion, according to Democratic Sens. Carl Levin of Michigan and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, who requested the GAO study. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1249465620080812

Note this is a bit aged, and I would be very suprised if they ever do another study like this again. I believe this country has bent over backwards for these mega-businesses. Look at Wal-Mart, for instance. They are one of the major culpits behind middle class downfall. Look at Intel. They are #1, yet they keep up anti-competitive practices by threatening distributors into not carrying ANY competition  products. My brother in-law works in Intel factory in Costa Rica. He services and maintains the equipment that stamps and bakes the multi-core processing chips there. He's got a 4 year engineering degree, plus years of additional training and courses. His salary? $200 PER MONTH. The Costa Rican venture is also exempt from all taxes. This is exactly what these businesses want here in the US too. If they could, we would all be slaving away for $1 per hour. At some point, someone should do something.

Instead, a mere acknowledgement of this inequity is labeled "anti-business", "Marxist", "communist", etc. Marx DID get some basic components right. One of them is the notorious 300% profit margin and its motivation. In my opinion, it would be sadly ironic if America lets unchecked capitalism ruin its system of checks and balances. Today's capitalism is very different from the industrialization of the early days. Now it's all about the elite monopolizing sectors of industries, then lobbying to change the regulation, then cost cutting/outsourcing/running it into the ground as to exract maximum possible value. This is not capitalism in my opinion.

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Sic semper tyrannis
~War is Peace~Freedom is Slavery~Ignorance is Strength~ George Orwell "1984"

AHTOH:

Businesses are awarded too much power in this country. Don't you see it?

Power to do what?  What are they doing thats so detrimental to our civilization,  other than employing people, carrying the entire middle class on their backs, contributing even their health care costs (!), inventing sh*t, satisfying public demand for goods and a standard of living we all enjoy (including those of us who pretend to be bolsheviks on internet forums)? 

I've heard the not paying income tax allegation, I suspect what is happening is that other taxes they are paying are deducted from what is referred to as "income tax", plus they contrubute countless revenues in the form of payroll taxes of their employees, etc.  The products they sell are taxed multiple times at various points.  And etc (each company creats an infinite loop of money that is taxed at every available transaction).  I am not saying all of these deductions are fair, all i know is the people making the allegations have not reviewed them either based on lack of information provided .  "Income tax" is not how corporations contribute to this society, even if you remove all deductions and loopholes.

 

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"The trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money" -Margaret Thatcher

I wonder what would happen if big corporations move to other, more friendly countries....  what would be left of good old USA.....

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- Независимость - это когда в 20-й раз наступаешь на одни и те же грабли, а русские уже ни при чем....

US is the biggest consumer market in the world (yes, still). They are welcome to move anywhere they like, import duties pending...

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Sic semper tyrannis
~War is Peace~Freedom is Slavery~Ignorance is Strength~ George Orwell "1984"

Are you convinced that current import tarriffs are at levels that overcome the tax and labor cost disadvantages?  I am not.  Having to pay 10x salaries, cover health care, match retirement plans, quotas by race and sex, constant litigation,  is the bare minimum in the friendliest of industries.  In the worst, you have unions and pension plans.  What tarriff can overcome this?  Especially keeping in mind that global commerce is moving towards free trade, US (of all people) actually pioneering this and taking the lead on it (for now).

Additionally, US may be the biggest consumer market for another few years, however it no longer is a distant first, the next few now combine to consume more, and the second tier ("2nd world countries") are growing their consumer class at double-digit rates and are approaching a billion (I am estimating and may be a bit off), which is 3+ times the US and growing rapidly.

So not only does one have to be a sadomasochist to do business in the US, you don't even have to sell your products here if tariffs are raised to amortize the factors I listed.

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"The trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money" -Margaret Thatcher

"Capital is agnostic. It doesn't have a religion. It doesn't have a philosophy. It goes where it finds the highest returns."

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Exactly.

For the most part

 

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"The trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money" -Margaret Thatcher

how is being the most consuming nation is a good thing ????

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- Независимость - это когда в 20-й раз наступаешь на одни и те же грабли, а русские уже ни при чем....

Consumption/demand is the engine of any conventional economic system.  Only consumption can generate self-sustaining economic growth and stability for those markets that create conditions to satisfy that demand.  Could be domestic, could be foreign, could be both.  That part is determined by degree of wisdom of economic policies.

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"The trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money" -Margaret Thatcher

Here is a list of 7 industries that currently need workers:  

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/26/7-industries-in-need-of-w_n_693173.html#s130740  

Besides expected choices (healthcare) there are some surprises like automotive and engineering.

 

 

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Sasha

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Too many people debate as if the point is to show who is smarter, rather than which conclusion is correct.

What is needed in this economy, and going forward, is to have at least a double track. Say, IT and finance. Or IT and mechanical engineering. Or IT and health. People with multiple skill sets will be needed as we are looking at at least 10 years of "recovery" ahead, and employers will be looking for someone wearing two or more hats. Just a hint...

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Sic semper tyrannis
~War is Peace~Freedom is Slavery~Ignorance is Strength~ George Orwell "1984"