"Outsourcing creates jobs!"

[johnpalmer]

That's what we're told. Outsourcing will cut costs, and with lower costs, businesses can expand, and create more jobs.

Sending jobs overseas is *good* for America, they say.

Let me think about this, really hard.

A company ships programming to India, cutting salaries to a third of their previous high.

It now has 2/3 of their previous payroll to reinvest, and grow, and soon they can re-hire the number of people they fired from their programming team for "good, high paying, highly skilled jobs".

Why, exactly, aren't they going to outsource *those* jobs to India, as well? And re-invest the 2/3 of the payroll they're saving to grow, etc.?

When, precisely, do the companies stop sending all the jobs they can overseas, with all the wonderful savings coming home to roost?

I'm not going to debate whether it's better to have "free trade" or whether "protectionism" is good... but the reasoning being used in this debate is starting to unravel quickly, by people who really ought to know better.

Comments

[pernishus.livejournal.com]

And now that I have posted this new comment, the old one shows up -- as the Wizard of Oz said when the balloon got away -- "I can't stop it, I don't know how it works..."