QUOTE
Toyota is opening a new plant in Canada, bypassing southern states like Alabama and Mississippi which offered as much as $250 million in subsidies, in favor of Canada.
Partly this is due to the embarassing fact that Toyota thinks the education system in those US states is so substandard. But a key difference in getting the Toyota plant was the taxpayer-funded health care system in Canada, which saves the company $4 to $5 per hour per worker.
Ironically, tightening trade rules increasingly disfavor direct government subsidies to industry-- the US and the EU are fighting before the WTO, arguing that US federal and state subsidies of Boeing and EU financing of Airbus are both illegal under trade agreements. The WTO just declared US subsidies to the cotton industry illegal under trade agreements.
Which means that providing national health care (like a strong education system) may emerge as one of the few legitimate subsidies governments can provide to encourage industry to locate in their countries. And the United States is increasingly finding itself in a terrible economic disadvantage internationally because it refuses to create a national health insurance system.
Partly this is due to the embarassing fact that Toyota thinks the education system in those US states is so substandard. But a key difference in getting the Toyota plant was the taxpayer-funded health care system in Canada, which saves the company $4 to $5 per hour per worker.
Ironically, tightening trade rules increasingly disfavor direct government subsidies to industry-- the US and the EU are fighting before the WTO, arguing that US federal and state subsidies of Boeing and EU financing of Airbus are both illegal under trade agreements. The WTO just declared US subsidies to the cotton industry illegal under trade agreements.
Which means that providing national health care (like a strong education system) may emerge as one of the few legitimate subsidies governments can provide to encourage industry to locate in their countries. And the United States is increasingly finding itself in a terrible economic disadvantage internationally because it refuses to create a national health insurance system.