Laziness as problem for the US not attracting new business?

Obama's solution of eliminating competition between the states to attract businesses will make it even harder to attract businesses. From Fox News:

President Obama said that the United States has gotten a "little bit lazy" when it comes to bringing in new businesses in to the states. He made the comments at a CEO summit as part of the APEC conference Saturday, when asked by Boeing CEO James McNerney about looking at the world from a Chinese perspective and what they might consider as impediments to investing.

Obama said it's important to remember that the U.S. is still the largest receiver of foreign investment in the world and things like stability, openness and innovative free market culture are attractive. He also said there are a lot of things that make foreign investors see the U.S. as a great opportunity - like stability, openness, our innovative free market culture.

"But we've been a little bit lazy, I think, over the last couple of decades. We've kind of taken for granted -- well, people will want to come here and we aren't out there hungry, selling America and trying to attract new business into America, Obama said. . . .

"Because of our federalist system, sometimes a foreign investor comes in and they've got to navigate not only federal rules, but they've also got to navigate state and local governments that may have their own sets of interests. Being able to create if not a one-stop shop, then at least no more than a couple of stops for people to be able to come into the United States and make investments, that's something that we want to encourage," Obama said. . . .

Here are some recent similar statements by Obama.

In a speech last week at a fundraiser in San Francisco, the president said Americans have "lost our ambition, our imagination." In late September, he said that the country had "gotten a little soft." And at a DNC event in September, he said that Americans' "faith" that life would be better for their kids had been "shaken."

Here is an interesting collections comparing Carter to Obama on "malaise."

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