Please don’t blame Reagan or Thatcher for this.
Under Reagan, the US economy grew by one-third. It was a stunning turnaround.
Thatcher had no less of an achievement in taking Britain from a basket-case in the 1970s to great progress. British Steel and Leyland and a host of Govt-run industries were a disaster. It was the right thing to cut them loose.
Their economic track records were great and you cant cite trade trends after they were gone as their fault. As you say yourself, free trade is not the problem. (And besides which Reagan was not a pure free trader; they kept truck import quotas in place and protected steel and Harley Davidson.)
So dont blame them. They didnt put in place, like we have in the US, nutty corporate income tax rates of 35% that tax money that is ‘repatriated’ up to that rate. It actively encourages companies to keep money overseas, where, you know, they can then hire and spend.
In the US, a Chinese made toy in Walmart gets taxed almost 0% rate, while a US made one has to pay for payroll, income, corporate income etc. And you are right, the playing field is NOT level, but The WTO rules and our failure to tariff-level the tax field is OUR fault.
Your DRAM plant is no different from fabs in the US. Or in France or Germany, look at Infineon, or the whole semiconductor industry going ‘fabless’ and sending manufacturing to Taiwan (TSMC). Intel CEO put the blame on US REGULATION. He says it costs and extra $1 billion due to US regulation. I’m guessing Taiwan is not so worried about global warming and about making tight rules on industry.
it’s not free trade, it’s not Reagan to blame. It’s these 2 simple basic facts:
1. We live in a global marketplace.
2. Our LEADERSHIP IS NOT 100% COMMITTED TO WINNING ECONOMIC SUPREMACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY GLOBAL MARKETPLACE.
With their distractions on socialized healthcare, phony global warming scares, environmental over-regulation, and financial regulations to refight the last war, and with sub-par education, our leadership is lacking.
China has an agenda: Become #1. What’s USA’s? what is Europe’s? Why does Europe squander its leadership on outrageous lies and follies like the global warming scam?
Why does Europe not stand UP for itself?
Our top leaders are community activists and lawyers. China’s top leaders are engineers. Who know better how to manage complex technological issues? hmmmmmm.
I don’t blame Thatcher or Reagan for turning the economy round or breaking the unions - I supported that, and still do.
I’m just saying, in some cases Thatcher didn’t stop at selling workable mines off and THAT was a mistake (benefit of hindsight).
I live in one of the former mine managers’ houses in the same street as retired pit bosses and they tell me that the mine was economically viable (in excess of forty million tonnes remain to be excavated).
I’m not a specialist in coal mining but even I can figure out the economics of reopening the pit would still stack up, if the government of the day had simply shut shop and capped the shafts.
But the road links, rail links and buildings were all razed to the ground after the pit closed; hundreds of tonnes of concrete were poured in effectively blocking the tunnels below ground; and many of the tunnels will be flooded by now. To get the pit fully operational would cost tens if not hundreds of millions of pounds and take a couple of years.
So in that sense only, preventing the mine from being reopened even in private hands, was a mistake that twenty years’ worth of hindsight might have informed her. It’s effectively put a vital national resource, beyond use.