system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: "Good-paying" factory jobs won't come back to the United States.

I am becoming endlessly frustrated with rhetoric from politicians that promises the return of "good paying" manufacturing jobs if they are elected president. These proposals typically lay out some variation of these three steps:

1. Cut regulations
2. Cut income taxes, especially on the rich
3. Cut corporate taxes

Supposedly these three steps will incentivize business owners to invest into the state or the country, which will benefit the rest of the population by creating jobs. I find it incredibly mind-boggling that there are blue-collar workers who believe this theory wholeheartedly even as their purchasing power declines by the minute. 

Income inequality appears to have really kicked off during the Reagan administration, and it was given a huge boost after the passage of NAFTA and similar trade deals. Union busting sealed the deal by allowing corporations to stiff workers, but eventually those companies, too, moved their manufacturing overseas. 

I guess this is where I stand: I can't begin to wrap my head around why people think that a flat tax is an acceptable proposal, and that any progressive tax proposals are "punishing" the rich. Obviously the wealthy are only trying to maximize their profits, but their business practices have meant the loss of millions of factory jobs. The wealthiest people in America are making more money than ever before, and, in my opinion, they deserve to pay more in taxes to make up for the fact that former workers no longer have that money to spend on necessities. Instead of investing that money back into the community through charities or higher taxes, the richest people seem to hide their money abroad or invest it into hedge funds or mutual funds. 

That brings me to another point: how is wealth created? By making investments. But it is impossible to buy stocks and bonds when you have no disposable income.

At this point, I am convinced that social mobility is a myth. I believe that the housing discrimination of the past has led to racial disparities today, and that the sub-prime crisis disproportionately affected black people. Black people tend to be more likely to live in lower-income areas, and this becomes a vicious cycle because school districts are funded by property taxes. Owning a home is one guaranteed investment. You can take out loans against your house, you can fix your house and sell it for more than what it was worth, etc. But if you could not buy a home in the first place, and your children cannot buy a home because they can't find a good-paying job, your family is most likely doomed to repeat that cycle unless some outside force steps in. 

I'm kind of rambling though. I suppose my point is is that those three steps I listed above will only hurt the lower and middle classes more, and will not end up bringing more jobs to the US. I think we could slash the corporate taxes entirely and we still would not even be able to compete with the profit margins available by manufacturing products in other countries. In addition, slashing income taxes for the upper brackets will devastate the rest of the population. For example, look at Illinois or Louisiana. I think that similar flat taxes for the country would trigger a massive recession, especially because our small monthly growth numbers are being held back not because of consumer spending, but because of government spending. I think that every politician who believes in neoliberal economics knows that US manufacturing cannot compete with manufacturing abroad, and only wants to implement those policies as a favor to the people who fund their campaigns.

I don't think factory jobs will be coming back to the United States. CMV.
gpt
Specialized manufacturing or all types of manufacturing?

We still make things in this country. We just don't make everything. 

Specialized manufacturing will still be a US thing. Making  and pinning shirts probably won't.