Tax Based Sharecropping: The Reintroduction of American Manufacturing

What had turned the economy around after the Great Depression was the deficit fueled expansion of the manufacturing base during the second World War. The ONLY time that was the exception of Sun Tzu's dictum that no nation benefits from a protracted state of war. It was this manufacturing base that made America the economic and technological giant at the time. After the introduction of the Marshall Plan, manufacturing jobs began to leave our shores, with devastating consequences for what would become the inner city. I've thought about this at great length and often. The doctrine of manifest destiny which was used to justify the forced removal and near extermination of Native Americans was used to justify putting men on the Moon. Perhaps what is cruel and inhumane in one context could be beneficial, even essential, in another. There was the post civil war practice in the South of sharecropping. Tenant farmers were allowed to farm the land owner's land in return for a portion of the crops. I have never heard it called an equitable arrangement. However.....the main argument why manufacturing has left America's shores for good is because it is too costly. Americans are too expensive to pay. But, it would not be impossible for the govt to provide an incentive for business owners to hire Americans and pay them well. To wit, more people employed create more demand for needs and services which employ more people etc. Creating the rising tide that lifts all boats. What is also true is that more people employed pay more taxes to the govt. To off-set the expense of employing Americans, the govt could give employers a slice of the taxes collected from the employees, based on the employees salary (higher salary = bigger cut back to the employer) with bonuses for providing employees with, say, quality comprehensive health insurance, employer provided literacy courses, child care, or other benefits. It would be, in essence, a tax-based form of sharecropping (describing it like that leaves a bad taste in my mouth, but the idea is a good one.) it would need to be carefully regulated...to insure that the employees are in fact getting the very best benefit from what the employer is supposedly offering and to ensure that no one is abusing the system. I would add that the more people employed and paying taxes would in time lower the tax burden for everyone. Possibly enough to lower taxes without sacrificing social services. Business would take on many of the services now being provided by the govt, easing the load carried by the public dime. Its not simple, it would increase bureaucracy and regulation...but it would employ Americans and bring back manufacturing. More people employed would be better able to afford products being manufactured, etc.,etc. People talk about ours being a "service industry economy." That's bull. Ours is in fact a finance economy which is open only to the precious few and which has the lion's share of the money. If there is a new paradigm out there to refashion our economy out of and shake what money is stuck on Wall Street down back on to Main Street then we'd best be quick about it. The people, using the term loosely there, on Wall Street are the ONLY ones not losing their jobs or their houses. What we are witnessing is what is left of the middle class rapidly melting into the underclass. These are the people who had the plug pulled on their unemployment insurance by the Republicans. The reason I focus on manufacturing is because it generates real wealth, real value, rather than the esoteric shifting around of intangibles (which IS the basis of the American economy now, admit it.) It is important to remember also that the economic powerhouse of the European Union is Germany, which is where American manufacturing jobs were imported to in the first place. Theirs REMAINS a manufacturing/processing economy...which demonstrates that local manufacturing can still be lucrative, and the stanstandard of living for the workers remains high. It is the spoiled ass owners of the means of production who have gotten accustomed to pursuing their own bottom line at the expense of the public (through loss of American jobs) and at the expense of the govt (through loss of taxes collected on lost jobs) and at the expense of their OWN interests by puruing policies that shrink their own markets here in America. This IS hurting everybody except the bastards on Wall Street. Fewer people holding jobs and getting taxed increases the tax burden on EVERYBODY. There's no escaping that. And the idea of cutting taxes to stimulate the economy is becoming more of a lie every day: What good are tax cuts if you don't have an income to tax? What I have proposed isn't elegant. Truth is that its a gnarly assed Rube Goldberg device of economic policy - but it should be effective. If we want to get REAL ballsy, we need to study the German model and see exactly how they do it - how the interplay between govt, business, and employee works. Otherwise, we're just circling the drain. The point is not to fatten the bottom line of bastards who are already doing bettter than ever...it is to expand their own markets here in America by creating a larger pool of people who can afford their goods and services by KEEPING THEM EMPLOYED! Thank you very much for your time and consideration.