Even with many of our high labor industries outsourced, BLS reports that labor costs still make up 30% of manufacturing product costs. If you can outsource and reduce your product costs by 29%, you had better do it before your competition does.
Most regulation except payroll taxes affects only specific industries. And payroll taxes aren't going away. Neither is EPA regulations or OSHA Regulations. EPA regs only affect businesses producing toxic waste. OSHA regs are pretty much common sense that any manufacturing business should be doing.
The cost of regulations is pennies on the dollar. The wage differential is huge compared to the cost of regulation.
It's not over regulation for most industries. It's labor costs.
We are on the same side but that stat is not true. We are offshoring to save 9% not 29%. Making it all the more foolish.
I think you may have missed a few items in the news.
The Left has defined the very air we breathe as toxic waste, and the EPA have done their damnedest as co-conspirators to codify that into law. I bet China and India aren't about to enforce the use of multiple blends of engine-killing ethanol.
Obama publicly declared war on Coal in his election campaign - and the EPA have done his bidding on that too.
And let us not forget the Delta Smelt
15,000 California farmers, ranchers and their employees driven out of work by a small fish - and by the ugly insanity of the EPA.
I'm just scratching the surface with these examples. New stories of regulatory overreach in the name of Gaia come on FR every week.
And here's the thing. Those farmers and ranchers in California were comfortably competing against everyone on the planet, no matter how poorly paid. The one entity they couldn't compete against was their own Government.