Throw the full weight behind it Mr President!

In a speech recently President Obama has called for American businesses to bring home jobs from overseas to aid the American public. He has called, not for an end of outsourcing, but rather an end to the tax breaks that companies get for outsourcing jobs. This is a type of protectionism that should not be done. Make the tax code simpler. But, targeting multinationals for being multinational will hurt American business in general and by proxy, the American workers that President Obama is looking to help. However, the Obama administration has pushed through some good ideas on the revitalization of the American job market that the government should continue forward with, regardless of who is at the helm come January 2013.

For years many countries around the world have had national agendas to bring jobs to their countries. It has worked tremendously. For all the talk about ideas whose time has come that the 99% and Occupy movements keep chanting about the idea of Globalization has come and is entrenched now to the point that there is no real utility in arguing against it. But, as other countries have created effective national plans to draw companies to them, the US government has deferred this power to the State level. Monster economies like California, Texas and New York probably have the firepower to compete with emerging markets like Brazil, India and some of the African growth nations. But how does Delaware fare in a battle against Russia for an information software company? If the Russian government can offer its whole commitment to a company, the company would be foolish to take the scant resources that Delaware might be able to offer it. By no means however is this to be skewed as some sort of besmirchment of The Small Wonder, only a realization that the playing field is not level. But, when a federal American government is able to push forth a bid against Russia (and the bids are not judged by Sepp Blatter and his cronies) the fight is fairer.

One thing I would say about this modus operandi. The American federal government must actively pursue the interests of the American people as a whole. Pushing for one state is not the best way forward. The American government should pursue the multinational corporations in a way that makes the most sense. If a company were to need a large place with access to fresh water the American government should not be offering major tax incentives to the company to open a plant in the Mojave Desert. It should work with states to get them the best fit of companies. Then people can move to where the jobs that best suits their talents exist. One of the things that has made America the great nation that it is, is the mobility of its people. Today people look to live in areas where they get the most amenities or entertainment that suits them, rather than searching for the jobs that best suit their talents. Of course this mobility has been made more difficult by the astronomical cost of owning a home, but that is an entirely different topic.