The Controversy Of Outsourcing In Today's Economy

Have you ever wondered where that hat was made or where your tech support calls are sent to? These services are all a result of outsourcing. Outsourcing is the situation in which employers hire people from foreign countries, rather than using its own employees to work. Today, items such as baseballs, iPads, and even American flags are outsourced in other countries. The “Made in China” tags seen on everyday items has been a controversy for a long time as this kind of labor sourcing has been around for as early as the 1980s and has ultimately been seen as a boon to today’s economy by lowering the prices needed to manufacture their items through cheaper labor costs. However, advocates against outsourcing claim that jobs are being taken away from

The more companies outsource the more job opportunities become available worldwide without excluding the local workers not outsourced. The proof is in the numbers, “between 2004 and 2014, the most recent year for which U.S. government data are available, total employment at foreign affiliates of U.S. multinationals rose from nine million to 13.8 million. Yet the number of jobs at U.S. parent companies rose nearly as much, from 22.4 million to 26.6 million”(Slaughter). It is evident that outsourcing has its benefits to the economy as a whole as new jobs have sprung up due to the implementation of it. The more jobs the more the economy benefits, suggesting that outsourcing should be applied to more companies. Although there are concerns such as which jobs will be outsourced and which jobs will be locally sourced but, there is a solution for this as companies “can allow workers in the U.S. to focus on higher value-added tasks such as research and development, marketing, and general management”(Slaughter). Local labor will deal with higher value jobs to compensate for the jobs being outsourced. The increase of jobs is overall good news to the economy and outsourcing should still be applied as assists the growth of the

This is beneficial to the consumer as they’ll be able to buy more items or perhaps allow “people to save for their retirements, if they're wise, with dollars that would otherwise be spent on day-to-day living”(Boak). “67% say they'd buy the cheaper pair. Only 30% would pony up for the more expensive American-made one”(Boak). Americans would prefer to buy cheaper outsourced items over American made items that are likely more expensive. Outsourcing produces cheaper goods on the market aiding those who are spending on a budget. Some might say that these cheaper goods are at the expense of the outsourced workers as they get paid less than the average worker. However, it is true that outsourced jobs are paid less, the lesser costs help expand the businesses who outsource resulting in more jobs overall. Outsourcing has aided the growth of the economy overall but there are also disadvantages that come with the use of