Posted by DR on July 23, 2005 at 01:55 [67.83.76.91]
In Reply to: Manufacturing Economics posted by Frank on July 22, 2005 at 22:06
I won't bore this diaper messageboard with an in-depth discussion of the merits of outsourcing, but I will say that from a macroeconomic standpoint, outsourcing is a tremendously good thing for consumers and world prices.
And while outsourcing does often hurt local economies, and does result in a local job loss, it creates new jobs elsewhere and drives global prices down, thus catalyzing trade, reducing the barriers of protectionism, and improving the wealth and buying power of people around the world -- particularly those in LDC's.
I'm from the US, but its ironic that many of my countrymen are among the most vocal to complain about job loss from overseas outsourcing. Didn't our ancestors take a risk by immigrating thousands of miles to the New World in search of employment, which was unavailable to them in their native lands? Why then shouldn't Americans be willing to do the same thing -- to move to where the work is -- as our ancestors did? To me, that seems to be a better, more realistic alternative than "everyone else on welfare" as you suggested.
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