National Industrial Policy: An Overview of the Debate

Publication Date: July 1983

Publisher: Heritage Foundation (Washington, D.C.)

Author(s): Richard B. McKenzie

Research Area: Manufacturing and industry

Keywords: Energy and environment

Type: Report

Abstract:

Much that is vaunted as national industrial policy translates into more of the same sort of government policies that have given rise to America's current economic difficulties--more protection of domestic industries from foreign competition, more subsidies for failing businesses, more welfare benefits for workers whose wages have been raised far above the national average, more spending on social services, and more proposals for the federal government to centralize control of the economy. Several of the policies included in the spate of industrial policy reforms warrant further and serious consideration. Shifting current income taxation to consumption taxation, changing to a flatter tax-rate structure, treating preferred stock dividends as interest, reducing or eliminating the corporate income tax, and replacing current government employment retraining programs with a retraining voucher program--all merit study.