Hello, Washington

Sept. 5, 2014
Looking at the economic malaise, one has to wonder: Why can't those who run the country see what runs the country?

It is a popular subject in the, let us say, less-than-conservative media: Our greedy corporations are “shipping” jobs overseas just to make more profit.

There’s another way to look at it. Businesses often “choose” to operate under another guvmint. Sounds illegal, but isn’t. Remember when Reno became famous as a place for wealthy people to get quick divorces? The customers lived elsewhere -- Peoria, Jacksonville, etc. -- where guvmints frowned upon quick divorce. So customers chose to get their divorces in Reno, where guvmint divorce laws were more to their liking.

I used to work for a company that owned/operated several car rental franchises. Management decided that our guvmint’s insurance restrictions -- intended to protect customers, of course -- raised insurance costs more than they raised insurance values. Choosing to buy their insurance under a less restrictive guvmint, they formed an offshore insurance carrier and saved a bundle.

Aircraft manufacturing is one industry in which we excel. We enjoy a favorable balance of trade in aircraft sales, exporting more airplanes for more money than we import. One would surely expect our guvmint to be delighted with this and to support and boost our aircraft manufacturing industry.

In recent years, however, our guvmint has almost waged war on our civilian aircraft builders by scoffing at those who use them. It’s hard to believe this is the same guvmint that provided a bigger jet to Nancy Pelosi so she wouldn’t have to stop for fuel en route to the left coast. Then there is the amazing fact that our guvmint left a huge aircraft in France so that one political wife could go shopping with her children in Paris (that didn’t please our local merchants, either).

Foremost, of course, are the stringent regulations that cover every (repeat, every) single item of doing business. Our guvmint demands control over every employer of every employee to the most nit-picking and detailed extremes. Remember, it was our guvmint that said Boeing couldn’t open an expansion factory in South Carolina instead of Washington State.

Our guvmint also contributes mightily to our overly litigious business atmosphere. I know, you read somewhere that it ain’t so, but consider this. A European manufacturer wanted to sell aircraft in the U.S. but was scared of our lawsuit-happy way of doing business. The company actually built a plant in Canada to serve the U.S. market. Our citizens could buy from the company, but the deal and delivery had to be executed in Canada. That company -- which I have visited in Canada, BTW -- simply did not believe the hoopla about us not being lawsuit happy. It isn’t business people who say we aren’t overly litigious.

Cessna builds aircraft in China. Boeing builds parts overseas, Learjet was bought by a Canadian firm. Could it be partly because the Canadian guvmint provides a more cooperative business environment?

Methinks our guvmint never read about the goose that laid golden eggs.