I am no expert on economics, but I think the trend of outsourcing labor overseas is a bad idea and unnecessary.
Sure, all businesses want to save money and sometimes overseas labor can do so. But, in my opinion, there is a bigger picture that must be considered. If workers are laid off en masse, they won't be able to afford to buy much, which will suppress the economy.
Secondly, there is an ethical consideration. I could understand that if a business is struggling and overseas is the only way it can survive, it may be necessary. But these days many businesses are doing very well yet still dumping jobs overseas. I believe that is wrong. (I'm not sure how to resolve that.)
Third, many businesses have been targets of takeover from things like private equity or aggressive mergers & acquisitions. As a result, they are saddled with unsustainable debt. These companies also use that as an excuse to cut wages and benefits and reduce jobs. Again, I think this is wrong. In this area, the aggressive M&A needs to be reduced, along with dumping unsustainable debt on the remaining business.
As I see it, business in the U.S. did wonderfully since WW II. But in the 1980s, what was considered wonderful was then seen as inadequate. New players wanted more. They developed new financial instruments and new tactics. As a result, wealth concentrated upward toward the very top and the working people were left behind.
***** Moderator's Note *****Business in the U.S. did wonderfully after WW2 because it was impos- sible for them not to: the allied powers had bombed Japan's and Germany's industrial infrastructure back to the stone age, and killed so many of their working-class males, that it took them 30 years to get back on their feet.
New players always want more: more profit at someone else's expense first and foremost. All of the great success stories of the postwar years came from companies that externalized some of their major costs onto the public, e.g. -
A. McDonalds and Burger King and wendy's never hired employees to wash dishes, or bought a dishwasher: they used disposable packaging and depended on the public to pay for landfills.
B. Retail stores opted to offer cheaper goods made in other countries, thus reducing their costs at the expense of an ever-increasig trade imballance which devalued the U.S. currency at the same time it deprived young adults of the chance to learn basic skills and get the experience which would have meant another step up the ladder for a generation of American youth.
C. One of the major American industries which survived is arms manufacturing, and the gunmakers go to great lengths to assure markets for their wares, forcing American families to bear the cost of random shootings, lessened security, lowered expectations for the performance of government, and, ultimately, a willingness to elect leaders who need only point out the obvious while plotting to make the situation better for themselves and worse for the citizenry.
Now, we come to the end stages of this declining spiral: corporate managers who consider the time and goodwill of their customers to be an externality, and who are willing to force them to deal with third-world workers whom are learning their trade at the expense of the next generation of American youngsters, who will now have one less option for ways to make a living.
Bill Horne Moderator