Let's Be Honest About Outsourcing

[P@triot]

Both candidates in the presidential race have been accusing the other of "outsourcing." It's one of those words that is loaded with negative meaning, implying that the perpetrator is un-American. But does America have an outsourcing problem?

What is popularly referred to as "outsourcing" is the practice of offshoring business functions, including building facilities and employing workers in other countries. Liberals often argue that "sending jobs overseas" is harming America's economy.

They are missing two important truths: The reality of jobs in America, and the ways to bring even more jobs to the home front.

Jobs in America

• The U.S. actually leads the world in manufacturing. Yes, you read that correctly. We produce 21 percent of global manufactured products, while China comes after at 15 percent. According ot the National Association of Manufacturers, "manufacturing supports an estimated*17 million jobs in the U.S.—about one in six private sector jobs."

• Big manufacturers are building new plants here. BMW is adding 300 new jobs to its South Carolina plant this year, and Airbus recently announced it will employ 1,000 at a new plant in Alabama. (Both South Carolina and Alabama are right-to-work states, meaning that workers aren't forced to join unions.)

• Multinational corporations still employ more Americans. U.S.-based multinational corporations employ 22.9 million Americans—more than twice as many people as they employ in China, Mexico, and all other countries combined.

• There is no "giant sucking sound" of jobs and money fleeing the United States. According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, the total value of foreign investment in the United States exceeds the value of U.S. investments in other countries by more than $4 trillion. Foreign-owned multinational corporations employ 5.5 million people in the United States.

• "Insourced" businesses are a tremendous boon for the U.S. economy. "Insourced" jobs—jobs brought to America by foreign-based companies—account for nearly 5 percent of private-sector employment. These businesses buy more than $1.8 trillion in*goods and services*from local suppliers and small businesses in the areas where they locate?

How to Boost American Jobs Even More

With an 8.2 percent unemployment rate, America still needs more jobs. There are many steps policymakers could take that would make locating—or relocating—in the U.S. more attractive to businesses.

A quick look at the Index of Economic Freedom, produced by The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal, reveals America's competitive disadvantages.

Hong Kong, ranked No. 1 in the Index, has an economy that has been growing at 7 percent. That's astounding. In contrast, U.S. GDP growth in the first quarter of 2012 was a paltry 1.9 percent.

There are several reasons why Hong Kong is No. 1 and America is No. 10. Hong Kong's top corporate tax rate is only 16.5 percent, compared to the U.S. rate of 35 percent. Hong Kong's trade regime is one of the world's most competitive and efficient, with a zero tariff rate. And its regulatory environment is "highly supportive of business efficiency."

Meanwhile, in the U.S., runaway regulations growing by the day make doing business vastly more expensive and difficult. The government is holding back the economy through regulation and its nonstop deficit spending, as Heritage's Bryan Riley explains:
Excessive federal spending and the resulting budget deficit continue to be a problem. Foreign investors spent more than $400 billion on U.S. Treasury securities in 2011. This is another way to say that the government borrowed more than $400 billion from foreign investors. Those dollars could have been invested otherwise in the private sector of the U.S. economy or spent on U.S. exports.

While concern about outsourcing is misplaced, there are many ways the U.S. could attract even more jobs than it already does. Increasing our own economic freedom would spur growth in the economy, bringing greater prosperity and new enterprises to our shores.

Morning Bell: Let's Be Honest About Outsourcing

 

[Euroconservativ]

The US industrial output is almost three times the German output.

Then, why do germans export more goods? In first place, that's not true. It was until 2010.

Secondly, USA is a much bigger country, surrounded by two oceans, and its domestic demand is much stronger. Not to mention the different regulatory framework. Just an example: 50-60% of Caterpillar stuff built in US plants is sold in the US market. While in Germany there are a bunch of companies that export 80-90% of their output. Of course it does not mean that Caterpillar is not innovative enough!

Does it mean the US is not an exporting power? Not at all. US capital goods exports (excluding cars) are worth $500 billion/year. Second to no one in the world. Including the crown jewel of US civil aerospace: exports worth $80 billion.

OK, Americans don't build the most popular premium cars or home appliances, and the consumer electronics stuff is assembled in China... So what? One month ago Nokia produced its last phone in Europe.

 

[Douger]

Translation: Build more Wallymarts. It'll also be 'greener" since murkins won't be required to buy anything outside their place of employment.

 

[Douger]

Maybe Walmart could set up dormitories like Foxconn and make a deal with Denny's to slop the herd !

 

[JoeB131]

Poor Rottie, realizing that people are getting wise to Outsourcing as a bad idea.

Of course it's a bad idea and always has been.

We have trade deficits of 500 billion dollars a year- every year. Our GDP would be 5 Trillion dollars stronger if we kept those jobs in the US.

But a few rich douchebags like Mitt Romney make a fortune, and that's good by you.

 

[kyzr]

Poor Rottie, realizing that people are getting wise to Outsourcing as a bad idea.

Of course it's a bad idea and always has been.

We have trade deficits of 500 billion dollars a year- every year. Our GDP would be 5 Trillion dollars stronger if we kept those jobs in the US.

But a few rich douchebags like Mitt Romney make a fortune, and that's good by you.

Both parties and all of Wall Street outsourced jobs. I put a lot of the blame on unions. If you are on a Board and the vote comes where to put the new plant, where do you vote? How about Boeing and NC for example? Its a $1-billion mistake thanks to the current admin.

 

[JoeB131]

Poor Rottie, realizing that people are getting wise to Outsourcing as a bad idea.

Of course it's a bad idea and always has been.

We have trade deficits of 500 billion dollars a year- every year. Our GDP would be 5 Trillion dollars stronger if we kept those jobs in the US.

But a few rich douchebags like Mitt Romney make a fortune, and that's good by you.

Both parties and all of Wall Street outsourced jobs. I put a lot of the blame on unions. If you are on a Board and the vote comes where to put the new plant, where do you vote? How about Boeing and NC for example? Its a $1-billion mistake thanks to the current admin.

No, you see, the mistake is that Boeing really thinks it's a wonderful idea to have planes assembled by Billy-Bob and Cleetus working for non-union wages in South Carolina, when they get back from the Ham Festival.

Now, I don't know about you, but when I'm up in the air thousands of feet above the ground, in a tube made of metal powered by a highly volatile liquid fuel flying at hundreds of miles an hour, I want the guys who put it together to be well-compensated and happy with their jobs. I want him to be a life-long career professional who underwent years of training and apprenticeship.

I want the guys flying it to be well compensated and happy with their jobs.

I want the guys maintaining it to be well-compensated and happy with their jobs.

I don't give a fuck if the guy investing in the company are getting their money's worth. That's really not a priority for me at that point.

But in your world, the important thing is that that last group of guys make obscene amounts of money instead of a fair amount of money, and hey. let's make more planes at Billy-Bob's and Cleetus's plane factory...

 

[Steelplate]

Poor Rottie, realizing that people are getting wise to Outsourcing as a bad idea.

Of course it's a bad idea and always has been.

We have trade deficits of 500 billion dollars a year- every year. Our GDP would be 5 Trillion dollars stronger if we kept those jobs in the US.

But a few rich douchebags like Mitt Romney make a fortune, and that's good by you.

Both parties and all of Wall Street outsourced jobs. I put a lot of the blame on unions. If you are on a Board and the vote comes where to put the new plant, where do you vote? How about Boeing and NC for example? Its a $1-billion mistake thanks to the current admin.

You can blame unions all you want....and partially, you would be correct. SOME unions played hardball with companies instead of hitting a sacrifice fly. What I mean is, instead of working with a company that is struggling because of the payscale AND a large influx of imported competition....they were demanding too much.

The problem with blaming unions is that all of that competition has huge advantages over us......Their employees don't have to worry about paying for medical care, because most industrialized countries have universal health care....the employers don't have to worry about it either. Most industrialized countries also have a government subsidized education system that will pay for students to even come here to earn degrees and transfer those skills into their economy. There are other considerations, but I'm going out for the day with my family and have to hop in the shower....to be continued.....

 

[kyzr]

No, you see, the mistake is that Boeing really thinks it's a wonderful idea to have planes assembled by Billy-Bob and Cleetus working for non-union wages in South Carolina, when they get back from the Ham Festival.

Now, I don't know about you, but when I'm up in the air thousands of feet above the ground, in a tube made of metal powered by a highly volatile liquid fuel flying at hundreds of miles an hour, I want the guys who put it together to be well-compensated and happy with their jobs. I want him to be a life-long career professional who underwent years of training and apprenticeship.

I want the guys flying it to be well compensated and happy with their jobs.

I want the guys maintaining it to be well-compensated and happy with their jobs.

I don't give a fuck if the guy investing in the company are getting their money's worth. That's really not a priority for me at that point.

But in your world, the important thing is that that last group of guys make obscene amounts of money instead of a fair amount of money, and hey. let's make more planes at Billy-Bob's and Cleetus's plane factory...

1. Don't assume that Bubba and Rufus can't do just as fine a job at assembly as the whiny union goons. Plus you don't need to deal with Tony Soprano and their political hacks. As an investor and a Board member my vote may be to relocate the plants to Singapore or China if the union thugs get too much attitude.
2. As far as being happy with their jobs, in the real world if someone is a screw-up they get fired. In union shops, the screw-ups are protected.
3. As far as keeping investors happy, watch where the investment and plants go in the future.

Attitudes like yours is why 3,000,000 manufacturing jobs were outsourced, by BOTH PARTIES.

 

[LeftofLeft]

- Unions Demanding too much
- egregious Government regulations
- uncapped legal liability
- highest Corporate tax in The World

With global competition, don't complain about outsourcing without first understanding external overhead and their impact on a manufacturer's ability to survive. Lower the corporate tax, align union demands with market demand, limit legal liability and government regulations..... Then you can complain about fat cat rich greedy businessmen going offshore.

 

[JoeB131]

1. Don't assume that Bubba and Rufus can't do just as fine a job at assembly as the whiny union goons. Plus you don't need to deal with Tony Soprano and their political hacks. As an investor and a Board member my vote may be to relocate the plants to Singapore or China if the union thugs get too much attitude.
2. As far as being happy with their jobs, in the real world if someone is a screw-up they get fired. In union shops, the screw-ups are protected.
3. As far as keeping investors happy, watch where the investment and plants go in the future.

Attitudes like yours is why 3,000,000 manufacturing jobs were outsourced, by BOTH PARTIES.

1. I deal with manufacturing outfits in the South and in Asia. It's where 90% of my quality issues come from. I make the joke about the Ham festival, but that was actually an excuse a vendor gave me as to why he ignore my requests for an RMA for a week.

Now shit quality might be fine if it's something you are going to throw away in a year, anyway, like an IPod, but it's a little more important for something your life might depend upon, like an airplane.

2. If they are actually screwups, they should be fired. But I've seen screwups get protected because the boss likes them or they have nice tits, and I've seen good workers fired because the boss felt threatened by the fact that they knew more than he did. The problem is you think bosses are infallible judges of business, when most of them are probably this guy..

3. Simple enough solution to greedy investors. If you move your plant overseas, you pay a huge tax for doing so. YOu pay a huge tariff when you try to get that product into this country and you have to put a big label on it saying what hell-hole you made it in.

Now I realize you are like a stupid person, but to you think we are really going to have an economy or a country if the "investors" are allowed to keep demolishing the middle class.

Frankly, I'm pretty tired of having to pay a lot of taxes to support people who got "downsized" because some greedy asshole "outsourced" their job, aren't you?

 

[kyzr]

You can blame unions all you want....and partially, you would be correct. SOME unions played hardball with companies instead of hitting a sacrifice fly. What I mean is, instead of working with a company that is struggling because of the payscale AND a large influx of imported competition....they were demanding too much.

The problem with blaming unions is that all of that competition has huge advantages over us......Their employees don't have to worry about paying for medical care, because most industrialized countries have universal health care....the employers don't have to worry about it either. Most industrialized countries also have a government subsidized education system that will pay for students to even come here to earn degrees and transfer those skills into their economy. There are other considerations, but I'm going out for the day with my family and have to hop in the shower....to be continued.....

Agreed its a complex problem, but people need good jobs or we'll become 3rd world. The unions need to realize that 1/2 loaf is better then no loaf. If they want a full loaf, then start a successful business.

 

[JoeB131]

You can blame unions all you want....and partially, you would be correct. SOME unions played hardball with companies instead of hitting a sacrifice fly. What I mean is, instead of working with a company that is struggling because of the payscale AND a large influx of imported competition....they were demanding too much.

The problem with blaming unions is that all of that competition has huge advantages over us......Their employees don't have to worry about paying for medical care, because most industrialized countries have universal health care....the employers don't have to worry about it either. Most industrialized countries also have a government subsidized education system that will pay for students to even come here to earn degrees and transfer those skills into their economy. There are other considerations, but I'm going out for the day with my family and have to hop in the shower....to be continued.....

Agreed its a complex problem, but people need good jobs or we'll become 3rd world. The unions need to realize that 1/2 loaf is better then no loaf. If they want a full loaf, then start a successful business.

Why should they settle for half a loaf?

Frankly, this country ran better when it was heavily unionized. People had good salaries, had job security and we had solid communities.

In Japan and Germany, not only is their workforce unionized, but the unions actually have a say in who the CEO is.

But what doesn't happen in those countries is that we have CEO's making 400 times what a line worker makes, even if he screws up. You get a list of the highest paid CEO's, they are all Americans.

 

[SniperFire]

Poor Rottie, realizing that people are getting wise to Outsourcing as a bad idea.

Of course it's a bad idea and always has been.

We have trade deficits of 500 billion dollars a year- every year. Our GDP would be 5 Trillion dollars stronger if we kept those jobs in the US.

But a few rich douchebags like Mitt Romney make a fortune, and that's good by you.

Both parties and all of Wall Street outsourced jobs. I put a lot of the blame on unions. If you are on a Board and the vote comes where to put the new plant, where do you vote? How about Boeing and NC for example? Its a $1-billion mistake thanks to the current admin.

No, you see, the mistake is that Boeing really thinks it's a wonderful idea to have planes assembled by Billy-Bob and Cleetus working for non-union wages in South Carolina, when they get back from the Ham Festival.

Now, I don't know about you, but when I'm up in the air thousands of feet above the ground, in a tube made of metal powered by a highly volatile liquid fuel flying at hundreds of miles an hour, I want the guys who put it together to be well-compensated and happy with their jobs. I want him to be a life-long career professional who underwent years of training and apprenticeship.

I want the guys flying it to be well compensated and happy with their jobs.

I want the guys maintaining it to be well-compensated and happy with their jobs.

I don't give a fuck if the guy investing in the company are getting their money's worth. That's really not a priority for me at that point.

But in your world, the important thing is that that last group of guys make obscene amounts of money instead of a fair amount of money, and hey. let's make more planes at Billy-Bob's and Cleetus's plane factory...

That is your choice, as a consumer.

But as we know, you Liberals are statistically the least likely demographic to buy a product made by an American Union worker.

When it comes to your own money, you are some serious, serious outsourcing mofos.

So your point is utter bullshit, as usual.

 

[JoeB131]

Oh, are we on about that again? Really....

Do you have like a rollette wheel of talking points...

 

[SniperFire]

Oh, are we on about that again? Really....

Do you have like a rollette wheel of talking points...

You whine about outsourcing, but you and your Libtard friends won't buy American union made products and gobble up all the cheap slave-labor goods you can get your hands on.


Fucking hypocrites.

 

[JoeB131]

Oh, are we on about that again? Really....

Do you have like a rollette wheel of talking points...

You whine about outsourcing, but you and your Libtard friends won't buy American union made products and gobble up all the cheap slave-labor goods you can get your hands on.

Fucking hypocrites.

Kind of hard to do that when they aren't honest about the labelling.

I've always bought American cars. My first car was a Chevette. I've owned Fords since then, on the assumption that they were American Made.

Imagine my surprise when checking a label and finding out my 2003 Focus was assembled in Mexico.

Again, everyone else protects their industries EXCEPT us.

 

[kyzr]

1. I deal with manufacturing outfits in the South and in Asia. It's where 90% of my quality issues come from. I make the joke about the Ham festival, but that was actually an excuse a vendor gave me as to why he ignored my requests for an RMA for a week.

Now shit quality might be fine if it's something you are going to throw away in a year, anyway, like an IPod, but it's a little more important for something your life might depend upon, like an airplane.

2. If they are actually screwups, they should be fired. But I've seen screwups get protected because the boss likes them or they have nice tits, and I've seen good workers fired because the boss felt threatened by the fact that they knew more than he did. The problem is you think bosses are infallible judges of business, when most of them are probably this guy..

3. Simple enough solution to greedy investors. If you move your plant overseas, you pay a huge tax for doing so. You pay a huge tariff when you try to get that product into this country and you have to put a big label on it saying what hell-hole you made it in.

Now I realize you are like a stupid person, but to you think we are really going to have an economy or a country if the "investors" are allowed to keep demolishing the middle class.

Frankly, I'm pretty tired of having to pay a lot of taxes to support people who got "downsized" because some greedy asshole "outsourced" their job, aren't you?

1. Quality is directly related to training and QA/QC programs. If someone isn't performing they need to be replaced. In today's market, bad quality is the surest way to lose your jobs.
2. Your rationale' fits union shops as well as open shops. Poor management is always a problem. Thats when Corporate overwatch becomes necessary, and bad managers need to be replaced.
3. Not to bust your bubble, but most products, cars, airplanes, appliances, etc, don't have tariffs. When I get on a plane, if it says its made in Germany (my last ride) I don't care. If the Boeing plant in NC was opened, there would be more planes made in the US. Since that plant didn't open orders were lost, and jobs were lost. Blame the DC whores for their stupid tax policies. I want to make money with my investments, since Medicare will be bankrupt, SS will be bankrupt, and Obamacare will cause many hospitals to close.

 

[SniperFire]

Oh, are we on about that again? Really....

Do you have like a rollette wheel of talking points...

You whine about outsourcing, but you and your Libtard friends won't buy American union made products and gobble up all the cheap slave-labor goods you can get your hands on.

Fucking hypocrites.

Kind of hard to do that when they aren't honest about the labelling.

I've always bought American cars. My first car was a Chevette. I've owned Fords since then, on the assumption that they were American Made.

Imagine my surprise when checking a label and finding out my 2003 Focus was assembled in Mexico.

Again, everyone else protects their industries EXCEPT us.

LOL

It's too fucking hard for Liberals to buy American, he says.

 

[JoeB131]

1. Quality is directly related to training and QA/QC programs. If someone isn't performing they need to be replaced. In today's market, bad quality is the surest way to lose your jobs.

Not really. There's always a balancing act between quality and cost. Trust me, I do this for a living. About half my day is chasing down quality issues because we picked the lowest bidder.

2. Your rationale' fits union shops as well as open shops. Poor management is always a problem. Thats when Corporate overwatch becomes necessary, and bad managers need to be replaced.

Um, yeah. I've seen companies close up branches before they fired bad managers. Usually, I've seen cases where everyone else gets fired before they give a bad manager a golden parachute to leave. Because usually, the guys at corporate are as big of douchebags as he is.

All a union does is level the playing field and makes sure the worker gets a fair shake.

3. Not to bust your bubble, but most products, cars, airplanes, appliances, etc, don't have tariffs. When I get on a plane, if it says its made in Germany (my last ride) I don't care. If the Boeing plant in NC was opened, there would be more planes made in the US. Since that plant didn't open orders were lost, and jobs were lost. Blame the DC whores for their stupid tax policies. I want to make money with my investments, since Medicare will be bankrupt, SS will be bankrupt, and Obamacare will cause many hospitals to close.

And the moon will turn to sackclothe, etc.

Funny, the thing is, Germany is a lot further along in the path Obama wants to take, and they are doing fine... now why is that?

It was Boeing's attempt to break its union that was the problem, not anything people in Washington did other than make them keep their promises.