No Longer No. 1, and No Wonder --WaPo

[Demeter]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/26/AR2006092600213.html?referrer=email

By Steven Pearlstein
Wednesday, September 27, 2006; D01



he annual ranking from the World Economic Forum -- the elite business organization that runs the annual winter schmooze-fest in Davos, Switzerland -- finds that the United States has fallen from No. 1, a position it shared with Finland for most of a decade, to an unsettling sixth place.
And the National Association of Manufacturers, along with the Manufacturers Alliance, is scheduled to release an update of an earlier study today showing that the burdens of regulation, taxation, litigation and health care are even greater than they were in 2002, when the "cost gap" between U.S. companies and those of our largest trading partners was 22.4 percent.

The predictable response from the business community will be to use these studies to warn of impending economic ruin unless the government adopts the Republican agenda of less regulation, lower taxes, tort reform, and relieving companies of health-care and pension costs.

Don't be fooled. These reports speak to the embarrassing failure of a decade of Republican rule in improving U.S. competitiveness. Business taxes, as a percentage of anything you want to measure, are at their lowest level in decades. The Bush White House has subjected new regulations to rigorous cost-benefit analysis. Several reforms make it less attractive for shareholders, workers and consumers to file frivolous lawsuits, but not necessarily for businesses. And in case you hadn't noticed, businesses have already made tremendous strides in shifting health-care and pension costs to workers.



Indeed, a reasonable inference from the World Economic Forum rankings is that the best way to compete is to adopt the Nordic model of high taxes, a generous social safety net and lightly regulated labor markets. Scandinavian government spending accounts for more than half the economy, as opposed to a third in the United States. But the reason the Nordic countries score higher in the WEF study is that their governments run surpluses instead of deficits, cave in to special interests less often, operate efficiently and spend their money wisely...The business community's fantasy is that the United States would soar to the top of the rankings if only we had Ireland's tax regime, China's environmental controls, Singapore's legal system and Chile's social-safety net. Each policy is part of a complex social and economic model that includes features that Americans, and American business, would find unacceptable. These are package deals, not individual offerings at a dim sum lunch.

This is a crucial moment for the business lobby. Its close allies in the Republican Party may soon lose their exclusive grip on Washington's policy levers. Business leaders can stick with a reflexive anti-government, anti-tax, anti-regulation agenda that has hit a brick wall lately. Or they can move toward the bipartisan center, where they might actually strike a deal or two that could make their companies, and the country, more competitive.

READ THE WHOLE THING! IT'S WORTH ITS WEIGHT IN GOLD! HERE IS OUR ECONOMIC POLICY ON THE BUSINESS SECTION OF THE WASHINGTON POST.

[corkhead]

1. stoopid librul media is helping terrists

we need to eliminate all taxes and spend more in irak.


how do you like my freeper impersonation?

[lostnfound]

2. I'm slightly encouraged if it's Singapore's legal system they want

and not Uzbekistan's...?

[Demeter]

3. Frankly I'm Amazed US Ranks as High As 6th

I'm sure that we've actually fallen out of the top ten by now.

[Julius Civitatus]

4. Let me think: low wages, no vacations, scant health insurance...

poor benefits, no job security, pension funds disappearing, outsourcing service and manufacturing jobs abroad, rise of minimum-wage jobs, over 60-hour work weeks (usually unpaid), destruction of labor unions...

Geeeezzz, I wonder why our productivity is falling behind that of our European friends. :sarcasm:

Remember, most Europeans get most of their basics covered, so they can go on to work harder and more efficiently without working second jobs or constantly worry about losing their jobs overnight.

European workers get decent vacations so they are kept SANE and can properly balance personal life and work life.

European workers can't work more than 40 hours. Labor unions are strong over there, and workers value the benefits that unions have brought to the worker.

As long as America continues these abusive and insane labor practices under the false guise of "puritan work ethic", people will keep getting screwed and productivity will continue to decrease. Remember that employers get to abuse workers, take away their basic rights, and revert America to a "sweatshop mentality" by calling it "puritan work ethic." It's bullshit.

Are we Singapore yet?

[ovidsen]

5. The GOP does SO many things!!!

And all of them badly.

Thanks for the link.