The CBC is reporting that Toyota turned down $125 million in subsidies from state governments in the U.S. in order to build a new plant in Ontario. Toyota cited two reasons: first, Americans are so poorly trained—in Alabama, actually illiterate—that they are impossible to train effectively; and, second, Canada's taxpayer funded health care makes Canadian workers $4 to $5 cheaper to employ than American workers.

I don't know how much more self-evident the fact that we need new schools can get. I don't know how much more self-evident the fact that we need a new health-care system can get. Ezra Klein reminds us that the Democrats need to stop "making this a moral crusade about treating the sick, [and start to] make it an economic campaign to restore the competitiveness of the American worker." As Paul Krugman puts it, "the political environment is so polarized these days that top executives are often afraid to speak up against conservative dogma. Instead, they vote with their feet."

Krugman continues:

There's some bitter irony here for Alabama's governor. Just two years ago voters overwhelmingly rejected his plea for an increase in the state's rock-bottom taxes on the affluent, so that he could afford to improve the state's low-quality education system. Opponents of the tax hike convinced voters that it would cost the state jobs.

But education is only one reason Toyota chose Ontario. Canada's other big selling point is its national health insurance system, which saves auto manufacturers large sums in benefit payments compared with their costs in the United States...

Funny, isn't it? Pundits tell us that the welfare state is doomed by globalization, that programs like national health insurance have become unsustainable. But Canada's universal health insurance system is handling international competition just fine. It's our own system, which penalizes companies that treat their workers well, that's in trouble.

Funny, yes. But not funny ha-ha. Funny peculiar. (And more Paddy Chayefsky than Mel Brooks, at that.)

So: read the entire Krugman column, and Steve Benen's comments, and then, the next time someone tells you that spending money on some sort of universal health care is too expensive, or will cost us jobs, or is unnecessary, turn to them and say, "Actually, that's not entirely true..."

heres another one: if the few can take a moment to step off their soap boxes, they do not have to recognize that women have the right to choose but how about for every $1.00 we spend on say planned parenthood they can save $10.00 in taxes...
liquid detergent user in Seattle

Posted by  Anonymous @ 1:52 PM

 

If most NHL teams were in Canada (as they were in the "good old days," I'll bet there would not have been a lock out last season,
GORDIE HOWE

Posted by  Anonymous @ 5:09 PM

 

It truly is unfair toyota is moving there plant north for the wages and health insurance coverage. I hope we can adapt to universal health care soon.

Posted by  Anonymous @ 1:26 AM

 

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