Frank Parker provides us with an excellent, easy to understand, narrative of the root of Conservative and Liberal agendas and their effect on both the US and Britain.

He provides quite a few excellent points for further discussion and I encourage you to read it. I would like to expand on one point Mr. Parker touches on regarding the effect of regulations on manufacturing jobs:

“… corporations respond to increased regulation by moving manufacturing to less well regulated jurisdictions, thereby reducing their costs and destroying the traditional jobs of British and American workers”

I previously worked at a US company who, 20 years ago, manufactured 95% of their products in the US. Slowly, the company moved their operations out of the country starting with Mexico. Around 2006, the company made a thorough review of expanding their facilities to China. They had previously resisted based on quality concerns, so they were late to the game of the big “Rush to China” made by so many other manufacturers of that time.  What they realized fairly quickly was the immense savings other companies achieved were no longer viable to them in their industry because of new regulations created and changes in labor costs. This led them to evaluate up and coming areas in Asia that were promoting foreign manufacturing like Vietnam and Malaysia, eventually deciding on the later. This scenario is exactly what Mr. Parker referred to here:

“Sooner or later, however, as prosperity spreads to those less regulated jurisdictions, similar regulations, protecting the rights of workers and consumers, will be introduced.”

Although, the scenario I explained also contradicts Mr. Parker’s analysis of effects that this long term process will eventually bring jobs back to the US and Britain. If companies are going to make their decisions based solely on where they can realize the most profits then there will always emerging markets that we can’t possibly compete with.

So, the question becomes, what can the US and Britain offer that overcomes prioritizing profit margin?

via #Brexit and Trump: Two Great Confidence Tricks — Frank Parker’s author site