* What is the impact of foreign companies settling in the U. S. on the domestic economy?
* On the future of American economic development?
This paper will attempt to review these issues, relying upon a combination of statistical data, anecdotal evidence, and speculative forecasts currently being presented in the American print media. Telecommunications media (primarily television), except where referenced in print media, will be removed from the forum of discussion; it is noted that both the George Bush Japan trip and the Bill Clinton foreigner-tax proposals were made primarily for presentation by the television media. Presentations of that sort are essentially symbolic in nature, stripped to the bare bones of argument, and rarely contribute to an objective understanding of the issues involved. Print journalists may have eagerly echoed the television media in facilitating those presentations - but in both cases cited (and numerous others), it has usually been the (relatively) more reasoned approach and follow-up of the print media that has exposed the factual weaknesses underpinning the symbols.
But, addressing specifically now the issue of foreign companies settling in the United States, realpolitik symbols such as those mentioned previously must be taken into account since they so obviously reflect the impact of such an act on public sentiment. It cannot be ignored that Patrick Buchanan, George Bush's opponent for the 1992 Republican Party Presidential nomination, drew heavily upon xenophobic fear as a motivating force among voters. "Us-Them" has long been a factor in the American social consciousness, despite the fact that all citizens come from roots that were once "Them" (Native Americans excepted). Since the "inexact science" of Economics must take into account patterns of social behavior as input factors on the economic environment, this groundswell of irrational sentiment must be figured in to any calculation of...