Since this format worked well last week, we'll try it again. I'll list five topics, and if you're willing to debate, pick one or more, and state your position. If there is a good response this time, we'll keep this format
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Outsourcing? I'll do that, if anyone is willing.garthnakFebruary 15 2005, 01:37:26 UTC
2.) I have at least four arguments here:
I. The solution to outsourcing is not to close tax "loopholes" - it is to eliminate the reasons companies are moving their businesses offshore in the first place. As long as it is less profitable to do business in the US than it is to do business in a foreign nation, companies will use offshore labor. If you wish to keep jobs in the US, stop punishing companies for providing them by raising the cost of doing business here to extreme degrees.
II. There is also an implicit assumption in the question that outsourcing is a negative - it is, on the contrary, a positive. International trade improves the efficiency of the distribution of labor. Through the theory of "comparative advantage", developed by 19th century economist David Ricardo, it is provable that there are net benefits from more dispersed trade options afforded to actors in the market economy - if companies are outsourcing, even without the punishing effects of government, it may simply be that it is more costly (less efficient) to hire the labor here than it is to do the job somewhere else. Efficiency spurs economic growth, which leads to real job production in the long term. Implementing protectionism from outsourcing now merely stagnates real economic growth in all countries involved by artificially keeping jobs in inefficient industries at the expense of everyone else.
III. Another positive of outsourcing is rising standard of living in third world countries. Those who seemed the most vocal against outsourcing during the last election cycle were also the most likely to call themselves "compassionate" - yet where is their compassion for the Indian laborer who can now feed his family thanks to, you guessed it, outsourcing? Surely a benefit of outsourcing to third world countries is the simple fact that there is now positive job creation in regions of the world that need it the most.
IV. Another problem is that outsourcing is not nearly so widespread as it is made out to be. I can provide statistics for this during a debate but don't have them at hand currently. IIRC, less than 1% of US jobs have been outsourced over the last 4 years, so it is really quite alarmist to emphasize how huge of a problem it is.
I. The solution to outsourcing is not to close tax "loopholes" - it is to eliminate the reasons companies are moving their businesses offshore in the first place. As long as it is less profitable to do business in the US than it is to do business in a foreign nation, companies will use offshore labor. If you wish to keep jobs in the US, stop punishing companies for providing them by raising the cost of doing business here to extreme degrees.
II. There is also an implicit assumption in the question that outsourcing is a negative - it is, on the contrary, a positive. International trade improves the efficiency of the distribution of labor. Through the theory of "comparative advantage", developed by 19th century economist David Ricardo, it is provable that there are net benefits from more dispersed trade options afforded to actors in the market economy - if companies are outsourcing, even without the punishing effects of government, it may simply be that it is more costly (less efficient) to hire the labor here than it is to do the job somewhere else. Efficiency spurs economic growth, which leads to real job production in the long term. Implementing protectionism from outsourcing now merely stagnates real economic growth in all countries involved by artificially keeping jobs in inefficient industries at the expense of everyone else.
III. Another positive of outsourcing is rising standard of living in third world countries. Those who seemed the most vocal against outsourcing during the last election cycle were also the most likely to call themselves "compassionate" - yet where is their compassion for the Indian laborer who can now feed his family thanks to, you guessed it, outsourcing? Surely a benefit of outsourcing to third world countries is the simple fact that there is now positive job creation in regions of the world that need it the most.
IV. Another problem is that outsourcing is not nearly so widespread as it is made out to be. I can provide statistics for this during a debate but don't have them at hand currently. IIRC, less than 1% of US jobs have been outsourced over the last 4 years, so it is really quite alarmist to emphasize how huge of a problem it is.
That's my quick summary, anyway.
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