Specialization in trade, efficiency, and profit maximization are what outsourcing is about. Outsourcing is the shifting of internal activities of a firm to an outside company. Since the early 1990s, many U.S. firms have outsourced some of their functions in order to improve efficiency. Outsourcing has enabled these firms to improve their efficiency by specializing on activities that maximize their profits. Labor costs are also lowered through outsourcing which drives down the costs of products for consumers.
Economic and technological development throughout the years has allowed for more efficient methods of production. Outsourcing domestically is not directly causing the declining job market, rather outsourcing is a side effect of other factors. Saying outsourcing is causing job loss domestically is like saying that a bullet is what killed a man. It was not the bullet that killed a man but the gun the fired the bullet and the man that pulled the trigger. Firms want to operate where they will maximize profit and efficiency. There are many factors domestically that drive up labor costs, e.g. unions, safety regulations, price floors, taxes, labor laws. Foreign governments, having more lenient labor laws, allow for firms to reduce the cost of their labor by outsourcing offshore.
A person losing their job and not being able to find work in their field domestically is not necessarily a good thing. However, in time the economy will shift towards different industries for workers to partake in. Farming used to be a large industry for many U.S. workers. With technological advances many farmers were forced to leave the industry and seek jobs elsewhere. The same thing has happened with manufacturing industry. A bachelor’s degree is now the minimum education level needed to be competitive in the job market. Where in the past a high school diploma could suffice now higher education, more than four years, is almost necessary to be competitive.
The Onion video represents the best of humor. It's hilarious while also highlighting an uneasy truth about our society. Because of global disparities in wealth, the individual American worker could subcontract their work in theory, no? I know, for example, that some video gamers pay people in Asia to beef up their characters in online games like World of Warcraft. Take this recreational example, apply it to the professional world, and voila!
(Since you did the outsourcing post instead of Rifkin's, you could do Rifkin's for Friday so you don't use up both of your skips.)
You mention the important of higher education in a few of your posts. I agree that obtaining a higher education has been tied to the American Dream of realizing one's potential and achieving a degree of autonomy in what one does. But how much education and for what are two questions that today's college students are confronted with. Since more and more people are going to college, the value of a Bachelor's degree is declining. One also has to wonder why you need four years of college for some professions that once did not require a degree. Increased competition has to be a primary factor.
Regardless, college is a great opportunity, a luxury even, and you should make the most of it.
Joe-
ReplyDeleteThe Onion video represents the best of humor. It's hilarious while also highlighting an uneasy truth about our society. Because of global disparities in wealth, the individual American worker could subcontract their work in theory, no? I know, for example, that some video gamers pay people in Asia to beef up their characters in online games like World of Warcraft. Take this recreational example, apply it to the professional world, and voila!
(Since you did the outsourcing post instead of Rifkin's, you could do Rifkin's for Friday so you don't use up both of your skips.)
You mention the important of higher education in a few of your posts. I agree that obtaining a higher education has been tied to the American Dream of realizing one's potential and achieving a degree of autonomy in what one does. But how much education and for what are two questions that today's college students are confronted with. Since more and more people are going to college, the value of a Bachelor's degree is declining. One also has to wonder why you need four years of college for some professions that once did not require a degree. Increased competition has to be a primary factor.
Regardless, college is a great opportunity, a luxury even, and you should make the most of it.
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