If you were a business own that might seem like a great thing since you get to save money, and the opportunity cost of finding a programmer in the United States may cost more and take more time because they maybe more busy or something like that. Regardless, it's cheaper and the freelance programmer from a low-income country gets paid more than they would if they got hired from someone within their own country.
Article: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/16/business/small-business-joining-a-parade-of-outsourcing.html?ref=smallbusiness&version=meter+at+5®ion=FixedCenter&pgtype=article&priority=true&module=RegiWall-Regi&action=click
3 comments:
I think it really depends on what perspective you look at this issue from. From a business standpoint, outsourcing makes a lot of sense. By hiring people for much cheaper than you could within the United States, you ultimately have a much more efficient business model that maximizes profits. From the perspective of the one being hired, yes, they do get more money (though still, arguably, not enough).
While outsourcing does technically connect the global economy, it does seem detrimental to the United States economy. Those looking out for the best interests of the US would prefer that people living here were hired; the unemployment rate would go down, and the money would be returned back into our marketplace rather than a foreign one.
I understand small businesses outsourcing as they may not have the funds to not do so. However, I hope that large businesses with plenty of money focus on hiring workers within the US.
The fact that our economy is predominately service based, and now even small business are supplementing domestic services with cheaper foreign ones is a bit nerve racking. We live in a market where I can have my taxes done in India, my website designed by someone in China, and have my MRI looked at by someone in Singapore. To me, that is far more fascinating than it is scary. As a consumer, and someone is who obviously biased because I have yet to enter the job market, I like the fact that I can get service in more places. It broadens the scope of competition and allows me to pick the best service or product on an international scale. Pretty cool.
The flip side of that, as has been mentioned, is that Americans could lose more jobs. One interesting development in the outsourcing movement, which is subtly eluded to in this article, is the fact that outsourcing labor and production may be becoming less popular. As the middle class in developing foreign countries continues to grow, especially in China, and workers demand higher wages. Therefore, the cost of production will go up as well, and it is possible that the price of the labor and then the shipment of goods halfway across the world will no longer make financial sense. However, technologically based services like website design we will probably never get back.
Since we live in America, it is natural to talk about how outsourcing or other economic decisions affect America's economy or America's jobs. I definitely think that we should care about our own country. However, we are citizens not just of America but of the world. For more selfish reasons (when one country's economy suffers others' suffer as well) and for more altruistic reasons, I think that we should care about how our actions affect other countries as well. There's kind of a double standard. We celebrate diversity, but we want to keep our jobs to ourselves.
Do you think that outsourcing is detrimental to other countries? Does it prevent countries from creating their own businesses? Or create more jobs?
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