The "Outsourcing Jobs" myth

Human Events On line ^ | 3/23/04 | Thomas Sowell

[MNJohnnie]

Every political campaign seems to have some buzzword, and this year's buzzword is "outsourcing." Since the economic recovery has not yet reached the stage when new jobs are being created to the extent expected and hoped, the idea that American jobs are being sent overseas has political mileage, whether or not it has much economic substance.

A recent poll of economists by the Wall Street Journal found that only 16 percent of them saw outsourcing as having a significant impact on the over-all job picture. More important, the political remedies being suggested to stop outsourcing are virtually guaranteed to make things worse.

[MNJohnnie]

What is really troubleing about this "Outsourcing" hysteria is how small Goverment "conservatives" seem to be screaming for Goverment to establish some sort of protectionist policy. I thought we were the LIMITED GOVERNMENT movement.

[lelio]

Already posted

[Agnes Heep]

Whether with international trade or anything else, the political temptation is always to do something that looks good right now, with no thought of its repercussions -- especially if those repercussions will not be noticeable before the next election.

How many people nowadays do you hear screaming for some kind of price controls on gasoline? They're the first ones who will scream like stuck pigs when they get their wish and there's no gasoline to be had.

Get on the Sowell Train, folks!

[Bikers4Bush]

Well if the economists don't think it's a big deal then they can give their jobs to the folks who've lost jobs overseas.

Despite what they would like to claim it is not a myth.

What to do about it is an entirely different matter.

At the very least we should not be allowing our financial or medical information to be accessed by foreign nationals overseas without our expressed written permission.

[sully777]

I suggest outsourcing flatulant demogogues

[international american]

Who said anything about govt policy? They should reduce taxes, and have tax breaks and other inducements to keep the jobs here. Outsourcing is not the answer. Computer wonks in India are stealing our technology, our credit info and our bank accounts. Call Bank of America, or Citicorp and ask them!

[international american]

see post #6

[gedeon3]

You can tell me and 30 other programmers in my team that it's all a myth; we all lost our jobs as programmers and the entire system was moved to India. Maybe all 30 of us dreamed we were programmers.

[self_evident]

How many people nowadays do you hear screaming for some kind of price controls on gasoline?

That is not a very good example. A large proportion of the price of gasoline is not determined by the market, but by a cartel which the US refuses to retaliate against, and restrictive evironmental controls which makes competing against the cartel in the market impossible.

[adam_az]

"You can tell me and 30 other programmers in my team that it's all a myth; we all lost our jobs as programmers and the entire system was moved to India. Maybe all 30 of us dreamed we were programmers."

Maybe if you and your coworkers were more productive, they wouldn't have outsourced?

Maybe if they'd kept you at the same price and your productivity hadn't changed, the entire company would have gone out of business... leading to EVERY employee being laid off.

What socialist concept makes yout think that you had a "right" to your job?

[lelio]

What socialist concept makes yout think that you had a "right" to your job?

Wow that's a stretch. Tell me where the original poster said anything about a right to a job.

[gatorbait]

What is really troubleing about this "Outsourcing" hysteria is how small Goverment "conservatives" seem to be screaming for Goverment to establish some sort of protectionist policy. I thought we were the LIMITED GOVERNMENT movement

That's becasue they are not conservatives at all, rather Populists with Socialist totalitarian leanings. Single issue, unappeasable "principled" selfish populists.

[Phantom Lord]

we all lost our jobs

Reality check. They were not your jobs. They are the employers jobs.

[Mears]

Sounds like a bad dream to me.

Of course outsourcing isn't a problem for the economists,stockholders,and CEO's,but it sure as hell is a problem for the middle class.

Wait 10 more years and see what happens. We won't even be able to get jobs at McDonald's because the immigrants have a lock on those jobs.

The next generation will emigrate to places like India and China for decent jobs.

[gedeon3]

Right.

[expat_panama]

I thought we were the LIMITED GOVERNMENT movement.

Ordinarily that's true, but there's this block of bush-bashers on the Freerepublic who call for limited government-- but only for others, and expanded government assistance for themselves.  You and I are required to redouble our efforts in our jobs so we can pay not only our bills but theirs also.  

The article talked about how the increase in steel taxes bought a few jobs at the expense of many-- this is the government protection solution.

[Poohbah]

You can tell me and 30 other programmers in my team that it's all a myth; we all lost our jobs as programmers and the entire system was moved to India. Maybe all 30 of us dreamed we were programmers.

1. They were not "your" jobs, unless you jointly owned the company.

2. The plural form of "anecdote" is not "data."

[SB00]

Companies have every right to outsource. It should not be the governments place to tell them otherwise.

To stop outsourcing, our government should take steps like lowering taxes and lifting the appropriate restrictions so those companies will be less inclined to do it.

[pointsal]

You might say that Israel 'out-sourced' mullah Yassin.....