Outsourcing is good for the economy
MODU:
Corporations defend the dollar, not a nation. Now, they can have national pride and specialize in "Made in America," but as you stated, these goods are normally more expensive than their equal counterparts. Companies are in the business to generate profit, and more the better. However, they do not sit on the profit since that leads to negative opportunity costs. They reinvest these funds back into their business, or into other businesses, to generate even more profit. The more companies take in, the more they can invest back out, thus increasing the economy . . . which increases jobs. More jobs leads to more money which they can then gain as profit since there are now more buyers. It's a natural cycle.
Dr. Cynic:
It wouldn't do me any damn good to give my job to some Iraqi or Chinease, or any other foreign humanoid. When I think of a good economy, I don't think of sending our jobs overseas.
Nym90:
But corporations aren't as likely to invest their dollars in helping America as are laborers. Those who work in organized labor spend a higher percentage of their income than those who are wealthy, because they have more need to spend it. They buy a new car, a house, a new computer or big screen TV, etc. They spend a higher percentage of the income that they earn from the jobs that are kept in America than the corporation would spend from the equal amount of money that they save by not having the jobs in America. If these people could get a different job that would be equally good paying, that would be fine, but no jobs are popping up to replace the lost ones. You have to have the job first; it's not enough to say "we'll ship your job overseas, but don't worry, a few years from now we'll create a new one due to all of this new prosperity that will result." That doesn't do the person much good in the meantime.
Corporations aren't going to spend the money here to create domestic jobs; they'll use the extra profits that they make from outsourcing to build even more and more overseas factories. You claim that they would create domestic jobs, but why? It's not in their interest. They can make more money by creating jobs overseas, so if they make more money by doing just that, why would they then turn around and create jobs here, when it's not cost effective to do so?
The corporation is more likely to spend the money overseas, helping the economy of other countries and not of ours. Yes, corporations spend most of the money that they earn, but the laborers spend a higher percentage of it. So it's better for the economy to produce as many goods as we feasibly can here, rather than producing them overseas. As I said, we can't consume our way into prosperity; it's a false prosperity for Americans to spend their money on products if we aren't making an equal amount of products in this country. Corporations are taking the dollars that we spend on products and shipping them out of the country. That's good for the economy of China, but not for the USA.
I'm trying to stay on topic, since the question was whether or not outsourcing was good for the economy. A whole different case can be made against it from a moral perspective, of course.
MN-Troy:
Not only is outsourcing good for the U.S., outsourcing is also necessary key component that has made this country and other capitalistic countries wealthy. 17th and 18th century European textile mills were probably angry about being undercut by American textile factories that could produce for considerably less. But over time cost equalized. This is no different than IT jobs going to India. And the result is that we see a rapid rise in Indian wages and in return they will want American goods and services. American businesses need to stay competitive in a global market and its a necessary function for those businesses to outsource labor cost to remain competitive.
The other rhetoric I often hear and read about job outsourcing is that once a job initially leaves the United States, no other jobs can be created. This is complete and utter nonsense. There tends to a net gain of 1 job for every job lost due to outsourcing. And the majority of those jobs that are being outsourced are very low-level work anyway.
MN-Troy:
Quote from: Lawrence Watson on September 10, 2004, 07:29:09 PM
It wouldn't do me any damn good to give my job to some Iraqi or Chinease, or any other foreign humanoid. When I think of a good economy, I don't think of sending our jobs overseas.
'OUR' jobs? You are in for a rude awakening if you think you have a God-given right to a job.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page