An average earning single living German is due to 49% of combined social duties and income tax so good luck with the "stashing"!. Top income tax rate of 42% starts at around 60.000$. Problem is, back in the 60ties when this tarif was introduced, a top manager with 100.000 Deutschmark p.a. could affort 10 middle class cars and relief himself from all social insurance duties. Today, a "top" earner machines car parts at Volkswagen and can barely afford a home in a larger city.
We call that cold (tax tarif-) progression. The social insurance tarif is scaling up each year in order to keep up with inflation while the income tarif doesn`t which is why so many people face substantial social insurance deductions, high income tax AND high consumer taxes - including self produced green energy which is the last straw for some folks. So forgive me if I am a little thin skinned when it comes to financial re-distribution ideas from the left.
That being said, the topic is "American Jobs". If that is still an issue, maybe tax funded free education is something worth looking into rather than trade tariffs and subsidies. When we speak about international competitiveness here - which we do a lot as we are (unfortionatly still) export-oriented- it is always about innovation, quality standards and workforce qualification, never trade tariffs/subsidies. We are actually experiencing a return of jobs from China lately. They are shamelessly stealing technology, are too far away for production on-demand and the workforce there is not too cheap any more anyway. With a high degree of skill and mechanisation, many jobs are becoming more economical to be created over here close to the customer.
