5stringJeff
Senior Member
Forwarded to me via e-mail... hope the link still works.
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/opinion/article/0,1299,DRMN_38_2741062,00.html
An "insourcing" boom
March 21, 2004
Protectionist politicians, CNN's Lou Dobbs and other noneconomists are in for a big disappointment. Despite their outcry over the outsourcing of jobs to countries such as India and China, the latest U.S. government data suggest foreigners outsource far more work to the U.S. than American companies send abroad.
Indeed, the figures just released from the Commerce Department show foreign employers added 3.4 million U.S. workers between 1986 and 2002 - almost equaling the 3.5 million jobs U.S. companies moved offshore in the same period. And though job numbers from last year are not yet available, foreign firms invested $82 billion dollars in the U.S. in 2003. That's more than double the previous year and suggests those firms added about 400,000 new workers, the majority of whom received higher-than-average wages.
On top of this, foreign firms purchased $131 billion in legal, computer, telecom, management and financial services from U.S. companies in 2003, the department reported. Imports of such services, a category that includes U.S. outsourcing to developing countries, hit $77 billion. The surplus has in fact helped narrow the U.S. trade deficit.
All of this should be food for thought for the demagogues for whom outsourcing is less about fact and more about TV ratings and votes. The outsourcing curbs they would like to impose would burden Americans with higher taxes and higher prices, and render many businesses less competitive in the global marketplace.
In short, they'd curb prosperity and discourage the very job growth we all seek.
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/opinion/article/0,1299,DRMN_38_2741062,00.html
An "insourcing" boom
March 21, 2004
Protectionist politicians, CNN's Lou Dobbs and other noneconomists are in for a big disappointment. Despite their outcry over the outsourcing of jobs to countries such as India and China, the latest U.S. government data suggest foreigners outsource far more work to the U.S. than American companies send abroad.
Indeed, the figures just released from the Commerce Department show foreign employers added 3.4 million U.S. workers between 1986 and 2002 - almost equaling the 3.5 million jobs U.S. companies moved offshore in the same period. And though job numbers from last year are not yet available, foreign firms invested $82 billion dollars in the U.S. in 2003. That's more than double the previous year and suggests those firms added about 400,000 new workers, the majority of whom received higher-than-average wages.
On top of this, foreign firms purchased $131 billion in legal, computer, telecom, management and financial services from U.S. companies in 2003, the department reported. Imports of such services, a category that includes U.S. outsourcing to developing countries, hit $77 billion. The surplus has in fact helped narrow the U.S. trade deficit.
All of this should be food for thought for the demagogues for whom outsourcing is less about fact and more about TV ratings and votes. The outsourcing curbs they would like to impose would burden Americans with higher taxes and higher prices, and render many businesses less competitive in the global marketplace.
In short, they'd curb prosperity and discourage the very job growth we all seek.
