Outsourcing has been a controversial topic and a political football for well over a decade now. We have tried to maintain a balanced view of the pros and cons. But with the elections nearing in a month, many Congressional candidates and the AFL-CIO have been unveiling an anti-outsourcing campaign. And the Senate fell just 7 votes shy of passing the “Creating American Jobs and Ending Offshoring Act”.
If you teach this topic and plan to cover Chapter 2, today’s Wall Street Journal (Oct.12, 2010)carries an interesting editorial piece by William Cohen, former Defense Secretary. He states, “Most people treat outsourcing as a zero-sum game–one foreign worker replaces one American worker. But this is not how the dynamic global economy works…The fact is that that for every job outsourced to Bangalore, nearly two jobs are created in …American cities”.
Discussion questions:
1. If anyone in your class has seen the new NBC comedy “Outsourced”, ask them to comment on this issue.
2. Should the government raise taxes on companies that move operations abroad (the Senate voted 53-45 last month to do so)?
3. Should we discourage skilled workers from India and other countries from coming to the U.S. to work?