Outsourcing Jobs Hurts The U.S. Economy

Outsourcing is a recent phenomenon in American history. Within the last several years, untold numbers of American jobs have been outsourced to various countries around the world.

The enormous impact of job outsourcing is rarely debated, and often not even discussed. This issue itself often sparks extreme controversy, and the arguments are varied.

Recent studies have suggested that as many as over fifteen million jobs may eventually be lossed to outsourcing. These numbers are quite alarming and should be taken very seriously. The majority of Americans do believe that outsourcing jobs overseas is damaging the economy.

Corporate leaders and their cheerleaders are very defensive about outsourcing — this is the way to compete globally. What that really means is that you as an American worker will be competing with someone possibly in Asia, for about 75 cents per hour. And these workers are being exploited on a daily basis. Is this really a fair playing field?

This means that while you are competing against third world countries, your standard of life will be reduced to theirs.

What politicians are not sure about is how the long-term effects will impact the American economy. And politicians are doing little to stop it.

While large multi-national corporations benefit tremendously from this practice, the American workers are losing jobs at unprecedented levels.

A recent report (PDF files) — Before the Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight, House Committee on Science and Technology On “American Decline or Renewal? Part 2 – The Past and Future of Skilled Work”  Tuesday, June 24, 2008  deliberates further on the ongoing debate:

Outsourcing can still have significant impacts on wage levels and employment conditions by impacting workers’ sense of employment security and bargaining power. These impacts need not show up in job flows. All that is needed is that workers sense a changed economic environment. The problem is that these effects have been denied by mainstream trade economists who assert that labor markets are competitive, workers are paid their worth (i.e. their marginal product), and labor market competition for scarce labor protects workers from exploitation.

Business may try to address its own internal division by promoting a domestic “competitiveness” agenda aimed at weakening regulation, reducing corporate legal liability, and lowering employee wages and benefits such as paid vacation time —an agenda designed to appeal to both nationally and internationally centered business, but at the expense of workers.

“Globalization also affects the economy unevenly, hitting some sectors first and others later.” Only time will tell just how severe this phenomenon will affect the working population in the United States.

“Solidarity has always been key to political and economic advance by working people, and it is key to mastering the politics of globalization.”