2010-09-17, 03:01 AM
Cancambo Wrote:But, would we live with the higher costs? Many people say "I hate offshoring" (it is offshoring that you're speaking of by the way, not outsourcing), but they don't realize they have what they have do to it. Without offshoring we wouldn't be able to go to a Wal-Mart and save boatloads of money on everything we buy. We, as nations, profit as a whole by having poorer countries do our work. If anything, the real ethical problem here is profiterring off cheap labor - not taking jobs away from an affluent country. We exploit the labor of poorer peoples in order to have a richer, better standard of living.
Domestic outsourcing is also an ethical problem. You lower quality control and skirt regulation to cut costs. Take defense contractors for example.
Outsourcing also stokes deflation, a major concern if you're in a recession.
We've had cheap labor for decades (Gap sweatshops, Dole plantations, Coca-Cola bottling plants, etc.). No one would be willing to do these manual labor jobs which has lower value than minumum wage, nor be willing to grow bananas in a place that's not suitable. I'm talking about manufacturing, services and research jobs.