The Outsourcing Bogeyman

Foreign Affairs ^ | May/June 2004 | Daniel W. Drezner

[arnoldfwilliams]

Read the whole thing. Outsourcing is not our most pressing problem: terrorism is. If you think you don't have a job now, just wait til the Islamofacsists get in power.

[Willie Green]

Outsourcing is not our most pressing problem:

Of course it is.
The outsourcing that is currently taking place undermines our most productive value-added industries and erodes the standard of living of the American Middle Class, substituting low-skill-low-wage service sector employment in it's wake. This loss of skill and expertise will eventually jeopardize our National Security.

[kdot]

If president, Kerry might to do a little outsourcing of his own - our US military outsourced to the UN.

[Willie Green]

If you think you don't have a job now, just wait til the Islamofacsists get in power.

Financed by the global cororatists' insistance that we remain addicted to imported OPEC oil.

[Cronos]

If president, Kerry might to do a little outsourcing of his own - our US military outsourced to the UN.

Nope: If president, Kerry might to do a little outsourcing of his own - our US military outsourced to alQ

[TLI]

Its effect on the U.S. economy has been exaggerated, and its effect on the U.S. employment situation has been grossly exaggerated.

Right. Exaggerated. Somthing tells me this person has never receved his last unemployment pitance and three more job rejection notices in the same batch of mail.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

bump

[CobaltBlue]

Did you actually read the article? The author says that outsourcing creates many more jobs than are lost. He says that 99.8% of the economy benefits from outsourcing, while only 0.2% of the economy suffers.

That's pretty good odds. No?

[Bommer]

Disagree. Outsourcing is not a pressing problem, Unions and over regulation of business is. This outsourcing thing will suddenly grind to a hault when Muslim extremeist bomb IBM, EDS, AT&T and any other American corporation. Can't hit the US, hit the next best thing and these are very soft targets.

[Bommer]

Right. Exaggerated. Somthing tells me this person has never receved his last unemployment pitance and three more job rejection notices in the same batch of mail.

Same thing buggy whip makers said when it was predicted that automobiles would revolutionise the world as well as data recall experts said when computers took their jobs too. Its painful when your the victim, but if all your looking is at you and not the big picture, then what the point of even looking at the economy?

[Willie Green]

Outsourcing is not a pressing problem, Unions and over regulation of business is.

Considering that outsourcing is a consequence of the over-regulation, there's no sense quibbling about it. We're talking the same thing.

[Willie Green]

Same thing buggy whip makers said when it was predicted that automobiles would revolutionise the world as well as data recall experts said when computers took their jobs too.

Irrelevant analogy. Even our creative high-tech industries are being outsourced.

[bvw]

Bommer loves you.

Bommer loves you.

Bommer loves you.

He is happy for you.

See how he expresses his love and happiness for you!

Take a friend of mine, Mike. Mike used to design thermonuclear warheads. However that work has been outsourced. To China. We sent them the models, the fancy-shmancy equipment, the whole factory floor, the blueprints and the pink prints and the yellow polka dot prints.

Mike is out of work.

But look -- his business was just like the old buggy-whip makers! It's good we gave this archaic technology to China! It's obsolete, antique, worthless. Buggy Whip!

It's painful for Mike, but if all Mike looked at is Mike and not the big picture, what's the point of even looking at the economy?

Like, I said, TLI -- Bommer loves ya!

[independentmind]

It's painful for Mike, but if all Mike looked at is Mike and not the big picture, what's the point of even looking at the economy?

Hmmm. I thought that's what free markets were all about. No one can plan or control the "big picture." Free markets are driven by the decisions of millions of individuals based on the information that they have at hand. It very well may be that the guy next door who has been looking for a job for the last six months has better information than an economist sitting in an office studying statistics.

[GailA]

btt

[AM2000]

... but if all your looking is at you ...

Looking out for your own self-interest is one of the bedrocks of free trade. That's all he's doing, looking out for himself, and that's precisely what he should be doing.

[lilylangtree]

Outsourcing. See Ketchupman and Twerpy Teresa. They're experts because of H.J. Heinz & Co, who has businesses all over the world. The company wants a free pass because of its connection to politician Ketchupman and Twerpy.

[R. Scott]

Strictly my personal opinion of the article -

close to 90 percent of jobs in the United States require geographic proximity. Such jobs include everything from retail and restaurants to marketing and personal care …

Yep! Some really great jobs in that sector!

marketing, research, and development …

A rather narrow and small niche - and it too includes “marketing”. This must be a truly unique career; it both requires close geographic proximity so it is easy to send overseas, and it is “much more difficult to shift abroad”.

There is no denying that the number of manufacturing jobs has fallen dramatically in recent years, but this has very little do with outsourcing and almost everything to do with technological innovation.

I would have to take exception with some of the analysis given. Comparing the manufacturing base of a modern industrial country like the US to 3rd world countries like China and Brazil? It would be better to compare the stats with Germany and Japan.

…structural transformation: jobs are disappearing from old sectors (such as manufacturing) and being created in new ones (such as mortgage brokering)

How many factory workers are there for every broker?
On the first read this is an apologia - and pap for the gullible.

[edeal]

This line of logic is bogus. IT workers are hardly buggy whip manufacturers. Try thinking a little more and come up with a new cliche.

In the case of IT it is the present and the future. The discussion is not about typewriter manufacturers being shut down by PC's.

I am not picking a dog in this fight, but your side looks foolish and overly adherent to catch phrase when you roll this tripe out every other post.

[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

I thought that's what free markets were all about. No one can plan or control the "big picture." Free markets are driven by the decisions of millions of individuals based on the information that they have at hand.

Nonsense. China controls their markets completely. So does India. The list goes on and on. There is no global free market. It's an unbelievably big lie.

In a free market, the average citizen in India, China or elsewhere could buy an American-made product. In such a free market, Americans could keep jobs because their products could be sold throughout the world without massive barriers to those sales which are currently in place. In the world we live in, only America allows free access. There is not a country on earth that gives access to markets as we do.

THERE IS NO FREE MARKET AND THAT IS WHY AMERICA IS BEING SCREWED!