Who feels that outsourcing is destroying America’s economy?

America needs to have its economy destroyed. The human race has done something I thought impossible… Prospered TOO much. So now we all need a good killing off. Maybe another depression, a nuclear war would be nice…

My Friend, well I do not Know anything about Consumer Confidence, i can only tell you that Outsourcing represents IMPORT OF SERVICES, and Import is leakage to the REAL GDP unless and untill it is matched by an equivalent or more EXPORTS of GOODS AND SERVICES. The reason for Import being a leakage is that it results in that much amount of money taking an exit from the economy. In times of Recession, Outsourcing is really a bad idea. You are right. At times when the American Economy is going through a Recession led crisis, Outsourcing should be discouraged.

Labor supply is the last protected part of the world’s economy. We outsource many things anyway. Your nikes, your shirts, you iPod are all probably made in China.

Most rich countries built their economies based on exploitation of cheaper labor from elsewhere. Sure, the US imported the labor (slaves first, then starving immigrants, now mexicans) while Europe sent their manufacturing to China and India (from the 19th century, it is not a modern process).

Protectionist policies led to world economic collapse, the great depression, the rise of Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan and WWII. So that didn’t really work out too well.

The US has to learn to be competitive. I work with the Yanks (as we Aussies call you guys) in China. China is fairly in-efficient, but very flexible. The Yanks are efficient but lack flexibility. This characterises the US economy. Efficiency without flexibility has mean a lot of the current crop of popular US products are being undermined by cheaper products that better suit the customer.

The most famous example is when Japanese cars wiped out the US motor industry in the 1970s. US cars were efficiently made. The best large cars in the world, but the world needed smaller cars.

My advice is less complaining (we do too much of that in Australia) more education (China has university graduates working jobs that people who didn’t complete highschool do in the US) and more innovation. This is how the US did it in the first place.

Henry B should just go ahead and take himself to a different country, one that’s not so rich as the US. Anyway, I think outsourcing is a very bad idea. Companies do this because, for the most part, they can get cheaper labor which takes jobs away and, for that matter companies away. I do agree that companies that outsource should be taxed more heavily than companies that suck it up and stay here in the US.Unfortunately a large segment of the US are far from even being middle class. I do believe that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer because the rich have more tax breaks and the poor just get taxed more. The answer to the issue? I don’t have one. I know that every problem such as this does not have a simple solution as much as we would like to think it does. Sorry, I get carried away. I agree with you.

Outsourcing can be devastating to people whose jobs are sent elsewhere. Sometimes they can’t find employment in their chosen field, and have to take jobs at much lower wages. Even people who are graduating from college can’t find work in their chosen profession. Who knows whether the quality of the work sent out is comparable with that done in the US? It may be cheaper, but is it the same quality? It certainly causes our economy to go downhill. If our people don’t have work who is going to buy the products?

First of all the rich are taxed more. We have a progressive tax system. I do not know where that ignorant myth came from, but it is completely false. If you do not believe me read some US tax laws and review the percentages paid in different tax brackets.

Second we do not out source any more as a percentage today than before. We just outsource way more to China, and it is now more ‘white collar’ jobs. Taxes US companies for outsourcing is not the answer because it only puts US companies at a relative disadvantage. Look at gas companies if we tax US companies for outsourcing like Exxon/Mobile then do foreign companies like Shell, BP, and Chevron get a break? This would put our US company at a global disadvantage. People who cry for taxing US company’s for outsourcing probably couldn’t tell which company is a US company and which one is not. A good reference is prescription drugs. We have extreme tariffs on prescription drugs, and we also pay more for them than any other countries. Read about the controversy with Canada’s relatively cheap medicine. It is really the result of their allowance for imports.

Also, expanding the economy is really good. Adding workers is great for our economic well being. The people against globalization and a global work force use many of the same arguments that they did to stop women from entering the workforce. The result of women in the US workforce has been entirely positive and is a big reason for our current mega economy.