How about this. Small govt but high exit tax, in order to keep money inside the country. Incentives to businesses to stay domestic, plus bare minimum of regs to keep the whole thing going. how about it?
A high exit tax would make them non-competitive in the global market. The only way this would work is to mirror it with high tariffs on goods coming in and we know how well that works.
ok, fair enough - so, what would you call this kind of system/ideology? - my own name would be something like 'Libertarian Nationalism' -
ok, cheers, sounds like a fairly out of date theory then so, long term, let's say it were re-introduced now, what would the long term effects be?
You don't incent companies to stay. Let the big corporations leave. (*)(*)(*)(*) them. Give support only to small businesses who will grow and expand to take the big companys' spots in the market, and once those small businesses become the next generation of huge corporations, pull all support and give it to other small businesses. Corporations create no jobs. They are as big as they will ever get. Their only purpose is to produce profit, at the expense of workers and customers, if need be. Small businesses, on the other hand, can't operate like that. They need a loyal work force and customer base in order to stay in businesses. They need to hire workers in order to compete.
If you have a small government and a short list of regulations you won't need an exit tax because no one would leave. However a small entry fee for business wanting to move in would likely generate crap loads of revenue.
Just lower corporate tax from the highest in the world to bring back money held overseas to protect it.
You just cannot pay high wages and have high taxes and expect a company to remain competitive. Whoever can produce a product for the lowest price can sell that product for the lowest price. Whoever sells it for the lower price will sell more. Those are just simple facts.
But by having a small government with lower taxes and limited regulations You more than make up the difference in salaries by reducing costs in other areas. If I don't have to have a whole department dedicated to making sure I'm in compliance with the latest pile of crap coming out of Washington, to say nothing of the several states then I have more money to put into production and to pay my most productive people. Similarly If I don't have to hire tax accountants and attorneys to make sure that I've got all the 'i's dotted and 't's crossed on my tax return I've got more money to put into quality control. Likewise if uncle sam isn't taking 40% of my net to fund his grandiose dreams most of which aren't ever coming true anyway then I have more money for sales and marketing.
