Quote:
|
Originally Posted by BoNgHiTtA
Yes, very good article. Outsourcing makes other countries able to trade with us, inturn strengthening our own economy. If we can produce a widget at 5.00, and another country can at 3, we will consume widgets at 3 dollars, diminishing our own ability to sell widgets for 5. However, as the other country gains from the sale of widgets, there economy will strenghten, and the cost to make widgests will rise. Eventually (though maybe not in our life), this country will no longer be able to make widgets at below our cost, and we will begin to make widgets again.
Allowing other countries to gain money only helps us in the long run. But people don't like the 'short' run.
|
It depends on your definition of 'us'.
That article quite rightly points out that outsourcing helps the companies that do the outsourcing, but people who need jobs are SOL. It tries to mitigate that fact by claiming that grannies with mutual funds will make more money if they're invested in those outsourcing companies, but the gains for them are going to be paltry indeed compared to the corp's principals who'll be taking down huge salaries, bonuses and dividends.
What outsourcing does, in effect, is suck out the money and jobs that has traditionally been used to prop up the middle class over here on the north american continent, pour some of it into another country and send the rest to the outsourcers. This is a very, very favorable situation if you're one of those neo robber barons that's making a killing off the scheme, but if you're a work-a-day stiff, or in an industry that depends on work-a-days to make your profit (say, for instance, the adult industry) it's not a good thing at all.
The only way the scenario finally comes to a stop is when the barriers to producing goods overseas equalize with the cost savings of sending them over. There's a long, long way to fall before that happens... I suspect that the end of cheap oil/energy will arrive, and be the expense that will push the equation back in the other direction. High shipping costs will incentivize local production, but there's much weaker barriers to moving non-local services over, ie the wholesale outsourcing of some company's bookkeeping or payroll services.
I could also foresee a popular uprising against continued outsourcing. The average joe on the street couldn't give a rats ass about 'protectionism' being a bad thing if he's struggling to keep a family of 4 alive with $3/gal gas and a wage constantly being down-pressured due to "those damn chinks". Governments have been known to topple for less.
