Quote:
Originally Posted by Wetzel
Nationalism is dumb, it's saying I'm better than you because of where I or my parents were born.
Counterpoint to 'money flowing overseas' is Walmart. They have huge revenues, but suck money out of communities to do so, sending it to shareholders and the Waltons, 6 of whom have the same wealth (~$90B0 as the bottom 42% of this country. The money is staying in this country, but you don't see that in the salaries or benefits of the people that work for Walmart.
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Nationalism might be dumb - but competing for the best of something is not by necessity nationalism.
The problem with nationalism is that there's often no actual measurement involved - just bias.
It would be difficult to prove that the Walmart wealth is entirely within America even if the owners of that wealth are in America. With our complicated tax codes there's every reason to believe that Walmart has accountants smart enough to offshore considerable amounts of money that they don't need to pay for their workforce or operations in America. Hence the value in not adding to the cost of the workforce or operations in America that's money they have to keep here.
It's like CEOs that make $1. They don't really make $1 in the real world. That's just their salary and they live off the capital gains which are taxed differently. That's how Warren Buffet often pays less tax than his employees.
I work on Wall Street. Money generally attracts money. Money gives a single person a voice that drowns out thousands of other voices. Money can allow people to get away with things that the rest of us would rot in jail for. Money in the hands of dictators and other violent people can buy weapons that can do enormous harm. Don't blame the tool look at the intentions of the people wielding it.