I love Dr. Ben Carson!
But the reason manufacturing left the USA is labor cost. When folks in 3rd world countries will work for a fraction of what US workers can, the factories move to the other country. There are things that can be done to help the situation but nothing is going to bring back the manufacturing we had 40 years ago. The USA was the only major country left standing after WWII and we made all kinds of stuff and sold it all over the world. The unions demanded higher and higher salaries, more and more benefits and got them. The rest of the world has caught up or is catching up and things might level out or the USA will bankrupt trying to maintain a standard that we can't afford any more. The government is taking in record amounts of taxes. But we still have almost a half trillion annual budget deficit. What is wrong with this picture?

 

Labor costs and taxes....corporate taxes. It's all about profits and why wouldn't it be, but I always believed if corporate taxes were lowered or eliminated for companies wanted to stay in the US, jobs would come back.

I like most of the GOP field so far.....I think any of those individuals would do better than Obama and his current admin.

 

Technically, corporations don't pay taxes, only people can pay taxes. Any taxes a corporation pays is passed on to the customers or the owners of the company. So yes, your theory is correct about making more jobs. The lower the taxes imposed on business, the more they have for capital investments and growth or to pass on to the owners.

 

When Obama did the cash for clunkers ,over 20 shops closed down because of a lack of work that year and that was in just one county! Then they had to destroy all the engines and transmissions of those vehicles, which hurt the used parts market. Get rid of all the unions and labor rates will go back to normal. We have to get higher wages to pay our union dues! Take away the union dues, and we can work for use! Obama loves unions. Its call CONTROL!

 

Dues!

 

Coming from a tax professional, that is a very good point.

What people don't see on this cash for clunkers deal, was (similar to the housing loans) that it put a lot of people in 5-7 year financing for a new car that they probably shouldn't have had or couldn't afford; when their older vehicle could have been fine for X amount of years.

I hate to say this, but while I believe it was the unions that took down GM and Chrysler, labor does need some controls.......if an owner can make $1 per widget profit, why wouldn't he just make endless amounts of widgets? Just keep adding labor and materials to produce the same profit, right? What also happens, which has just recently been mentioned, is the owners suppress costs as much as the law allows to keep more in their pockets; even if they really are adding jobs.

Where the controlled labor rates hurt, are not the big corporations, but in small businesses where any kind of forced hike drops their bottom line dramatically. But in the end, again already mentioned, the consumer ends up paying one way or another, but competition is supposed to keep those rates from being too far inflated.....you can only raise prices so much before people stop buying your product.....a delicate balance indeed...something I have dealt with in my practice for 16+ years.

 

This country is full of people who love to get into debt. If we can all focus on getting our credit cards and loans under control, we'd be better off. Unfortunately, our own government is not setting a good example. The world is teaching us that tomorrow we may die so spend everything you have on crap that makes you happy. We don't need the latest iPhone, the latest F150, the latest Jordans, or the bigger house. We must learn to live within our means. What are we teaching our kids? We need to do better as parents and as a nation.

 

My wife and I are dinos for sure. Have paid cash for every new car we have bought. We save till we have the cash. Financed one truck to get the $1000 cash and then paid it off after making one payment. Have not done that on the last two, and the salesman thinks we are nuts. We have one credit card and only use it for emergencies on the highway or to occasionally buy mail order. Pay off the balance at month end so never a finance charge. Paid off the house in half time. I have the iPhone 4, it still does all I need. Wife has a regular cell, no smartphone. As a result, we have a lousy credit rating as we have not bought on credit and that means the insurance company charges a high rate on home insurance. That infuriates me and I have told them, not that it did any good.

 

Well said. If the school systems aren't going to teach our kids about finances and debt, it's up to the parents.....our kids are still young, but we are already planning on teaching them how to handle finances; see below:

This is almost identical to how my wife and I live and we didn't learn it from the school system or from the government's horrible example.

 

You're not alone! We used to finance cars along time ago until we got smart. I chose to buy a 2006 F150 two years ago cheap and paid 20,000 cash. Brand new it cost over 52,000. Wow, I can't believe people pay that much for something that depreciates so quickly. It's 8 years old but its supercharged with less than 35,000 miles. Having no payments and owning it outright is such freedom! There is always extra money for that unexpected repair or new mod! We've eliminated all our credit cards and all we have left is our house which we'll pay off fast. It took us a lot of years to get to this point, but it's so worth it. After we run my wife's Expedition into the ground, we'll pay cash for a used Raptor. Our credit is decent only because we're still paying on the house. It's sad that people are fooled to think they have to have a car payment.

 

This is starting to look like a Dave Ramsey thread!

My personal finances are pretty sad.....but we are working on it. My son and daughter are doing the Dave Ramsey thing, saving for a house and NO other payments except living expenses, I proud of them!

 

That's because his principles work......

Referencing the story above on the truck purchase.....2 years ago in 2013, I bought my King Ranch from a private sale.....it was an 06, booking at 28k and had only 26k miles on it....I offered him 20k cash and we finally negotiated 22k......while I don't drive much, the truck is still worth a decent amount and has only 30k miles on it and looks as new as it did when I first bought it....how much did he buy it for? He gave me the invoice when I bought it, along with the original paperwork and it was 55k....DANG!

But we also don't have a car payment and I can't tell you how many times (I heard it twice this past week in my office) people say, it's just a normal fact of life; having a car payment forever.......and both of them are driving new financed cars.....wow.....everyone in my family does it....

The other thing that frustrates me is that while my wife and I drive around nice respectable vehicles, no matter how many times I tell them that we don't finance cars, they all still assume we're making payments.....it's almost as if they can't fathom the thought of NOT having a car payment or paying for a car CASH.

 

Question about all the new laws. Has anyone gone to their bank and try to take out more than $5000 in cash and had to answer 50 questions? not really 50, but what are you going to use the money for? I have also heard that it is becoming hard to deposit cash in large sums. ??? Got to get rid of all the homesteaders in office, including the top dog.

 

No, I haven't had trouble pulling or depositing large sums. My bank would call right away if we were pulling a large sum out just to make sure it's us pulling it out. I'd really question your bank. It's your money, and your business what you do with it.

 

My wife and I did Dave Ramsey and got ourselves out of debt. We teach a Dave Ramsey class at our church for families. It's an eye opener for sure! We had lot's of family problems due to poor finances. Our personnel finances were in shambles, but we got through it using Dave Ramsey's principles. Now we are debt free besides our house. If you need any advice, please pm me! We'd love to help in any way we can