Job Outsourcing
I keep remembering the wholesale outsourcing of manufacturing jobs by global corporations over the past decade or so. Auto manufacturers outsourced their jobs to Mexico. Computer software companies outsourced their technical support to India, and so on.
As they did so thousands of Americans lost their jobs. It has been apparent that the motivation of the corporations in doing so was to cut their production costs thereby increasing their profits. Might have been a good move for the corporations, but devastating to the American blue-collar middle class.
My wife, who is the primary shopper in our family, tells me she looks at the labels of things she shops for to see if they were manufactured in the United States. She wants to buy American. But the preponderance of goods are manufactured in some foreign country. (Like many she shops at Wal-Mart). The stuff she is looking for is made in China, Mexico, Taiwan, etc. Very little is made in the USA.
Of course the lack of jobs in the USA is a major concern at present. No wonder there is such a lack of jobs—they are outsourced to foreign countries.
I don’t hear about the outsourcing being discussed on the news. Am I wrong in my conclusion that the outsourcing is the cause of the job loss in the US?
If I’m right then why isn’t it being talked about and addressed?
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The effect of outsourcing isn’t so black and white. Most U.S. companies are using outsourced people to supplement their current U.S. positions. For instance we hired 2 people in the Philippines to make appointments for our U.S. sales people. This was successful and we were able to hire 2 more U.S. sales people because we were making more money. Get with the times! Are you from the 1950′s? Wake up and open your eyes to the new World Economy!
Well John, maybe I am behind the times. I was born in 1933 and, of course, a product of my own experiences since then. I asssure you that I recognize the globalization of business and the economy.
By the same token, much of my early life was spent as a “blue collar” worker and I sympathize with the plight of common working people.
You’re right it has never occurred to me outsourcing could result in creation of jobs in the United States. Learned something from your comment.
The main point of my blog post was that outsourcing isn’t discussed much, it seems.
Being now retired I don’t have to worry about a job anymore. But a lot of people do. When people can’t find jobs they have no income to spend, which has to have a detrimental effect on the profitability of businesses, corporate or not.
Wouldn’t it be nice if those two outsourced jobs to the Philippines could have been performed here in the United States? Would have been a big help to two families here. I’m sure those two in the Philippines must appreciate the jobs. I was in the Philippines in the 1950′s and am sure the economy of the Philippines could use those jobs, at least then and likely now as well.
I do appreciate and thank you for your comment and that lesson about something I hadn’t thought of. Hope you keep me honest and straight.
Best regards
Featheriver
at our present predicament the only realisric solution for creating jobs here is to stop outsourcing . Our economic experts and talk shows and politicians should realized this. One can not just supply money and creat jobs to build roads ,etc (they are temporary). Manufacturing goods here are more enduring; the goods made here might be more expensive but if goods are well-made and advanced(electronics) the world will buy them, people will have jobs, pay their taxes and help increase incoming revenues to the treasury. Surely, China will not do that. Our government should talk to our businesses about the long-term folly of this practice
If you study the history of NAFTA,CAFTA,GATT,WTO you may be drawn to the conclusion we are ruled by a Corptocracy, aided by compliant polititians in both parties. Sen. Sherrod Brown has a good book called.” The Myth of Free Trade”which gets my vote a a great primer on how we got into this mess.There is no one easy answer to most complex problems, but,look at what works, what does not.Germany has strong labor unions, universal health care,social security.They are the leading manufacturing center in the world. They also have a trade surplus with Red China. I like to look at what works. Germany works.
Thanks for the comment Mike. I have concluded that corporations hold too much control over politics in the United States. I haven’t read Sherrod Brown’s book on free trade, perhaps I should. It is difficult for me to understand why such countries as Germany can be doing so well in this global economy and the United States is doing so poorly.
One thing I’m sure of is that the United States spends too much time and money engaging in wars, particularly Viet Nam, Korea and Iraq. As to Afghanistan that is a different kind of war. I do think the U.S. has to adapt and change its method in fighting such a war. It is really a war on a gang of thugs, rather than a traditional war such as WWI and II. Perhaps using bands such as those Seals that got to Osama bin Laden is the better approach rather than waves of occupying troops, etc.
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