USA's Economic Freedom Rating

[chartman]

Quote from Covertibility:

[BSo even though taxes were higher in the 90's than in the 80's, output was higher. The US had more manufacturing in the 40's-70's yet taxes were a lot higher than at any point in the past 30 years. I don't think there is a link between taxes and manufacturing output.
[/B]

In my opinion, taxes do affect WHERE manufacturing is done. Companies are now moving production off-shore for lower taxes and less regulation. Manufacturing in the USA is on a steady decline due to competition from imports and outsourcing of jobs for cheaper labor cost. The reduction in the manufacturing sector will hinder a recovery from this recession and future recessions.

 

[Scataphagos]

Quote from chartman:

In my opinion, taxes do affect WHERE manufacturing is done. Companies are now moving production off-shore for lower taxes and less regulation. Manufacturing in the USA is on a steady decline due to competition from imports and outsourcing of jobs for cheaper labor cost. The reduction in the manufacturing sector will hinder a recovery from this recession and future recessions.

+1

To reference "manufacturing in America" now vs. a time before NAFTA and globalization is to compare apples to lug nuts.

 

[Kevin.Conard]

Quote from Mike805:

I think there's something critical missing from that statistic; the fact that the US has an order of magnitude larger population size than any other country in the top ten.

Large populations are inherently much more diffucult to govern effectively. New Zealand, for example, has 4.3 million people and new/creative financial/social systems can be implemented in relatively short time frames. The government in NZ can realistically determine the effects of new legislation in a matter of years as the implementation and result is immediate when compared to the US.

If we look at a country's path towards prosperity as a trial and error exercise, for every trial the US must spend much more time to determine the effectiveness.

The bigger the beast the slower it moves... but, it does get there, eventually.

Mike

Maybe state governments should have more power?!

 

[Kevin.Conard]

The patriot act had a strongly negative impact on economic freedom.

 

[jagadish]

Will operating Govt, private offices and factories 24x7 fix some of the economic woes in USA?

 

[Scataphagos]

Quote from Kevin.Conard:

Maybe state governments should have more power?!

They HAD more power in our early history, but the greedy and power hungry Feds usurped it. Now, the Feds believe they can "do ANYTHING they want and the States/Constitution are powerless to stop them".

 

[MKTrader]

Quote from Covertibility:

<IMG SRC=http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/fredgraph.png?bgcolor=%23B3CDE7&chart_type=line&drp=0&fo=ve&graph_bgcolor=%23FFFFFF&height=378&mode=fred&preserve_ratio=checked&recession_bars=On&txtcolor=%23000000&ts=8&width=630&id=OUTMS&scale=Left&range=Max&cosd=1987-01-01&coed=2010-04-01&line_color=%230000FF&link_values=false&line_style=Solid&mark_type=NONE&mw=4&lw=1&ost=-99999&oet=99999&mma=0&fml=a&transformation=pc1&vintage_date=2010-10-18&revision_date=2010-10-18>

So even though taxes were higher in the 90's than in the 80's, output was higher. The US had more manufacturing in the 40's-70's yet taxes were a lot higher than at any point in the past 30 years. I don't think there is a link between taxes and manufacturing output.

Why are people from Texas so dumb?

Stupidity,

Which taxes? State? Property? Gasoline? Tobacco? All those rose heavily over the years. So did regulations, gov't agencies and the welfare state. Trying to compare income taxes alone with one sector is an exercise in, yes, stupidity.

 

[MKTrader]

Quote from Kevin.Conard:

Maybe state governments should have more power?!

Definitely. The founding fathers would literally be taking up arms if they were alive and saw how much the Feds have usurped. If you know anything about our history (hint: you won't learn it from school textbooks), you know our current situation is absolutely nothing like what was intended re: 10th Amendment, nullification, etc.

 

[Scataphagos]

Quote from MKTrader:

Definitely. The founding fathers would literally be taking up arms if they were alive and saw how much the Feds have usurped. If you know anything about our history (hint: you won't learn it from school textbooks), you know our current situation is absolutely nothing like what was intended re: 10th Amendment, nullification, etc.

The Founders were ADAMANTLY OPPOSED to the USA ever having (1) a central bank and (2) a large, powerful Federal government.

Now it's obvious as to why.

The Founders had collective genius, but greed and the hunger for power have left us in a near-Communist state presently... getting worse by the day.

Obama's "hope and change" message was all about "rapidly taking us the rest of the way to Communism"... but greedy, naive, stupid voters didn't understand that nor did they bother to "look into the man".. they were blinded with the euphoria of the promise of "free ice cream".