On Sun, Mar 07, 2004 at 02:23:49PM -0800, Doug Pensinger wrote: > I was thinking more in terms of the way contracts, subsidies and > tax structure are handled and maybe some sort of enforced severance > arrangement for jobs (beyond unemployment and taking quality and > duration of sevice into account).
The problem with making it expensive to lay someone off is that you simultaneously make it more expensive to hire someone. So, the companies will have more incentive to outsource to where there are fewer such restrictions, or else employment will suffer because companies will be more reluctant to hire. You can see this in Europe, where unemployment is higher in most European countries than the US -- a big reason is that various laws make employees more expensive in those countries. > How do you feel about corporations that move offshore to avoid taxes? Seems like a logical thing to do if the home government imposes tariffs. Also no problem if the foreign government with the low taxes is having a "sale", temporarily lowering taxes to attract investment. If the foreign government has permanently lower taxes than the home government, then the question is why? If they are more efficient, great, they should get the extra investment. But if they are lower because they are not providing adequate services and protection to their citizens, then they should be carefully scrutinized for labor or environmental violations. -- Erik Reuter http://www.erikreuter.net/ _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
