A while back I posted an article called, Would you like Fries with that? discussing concerns about outsourcing and it's effect on jobs. As a follow-up to that post, there's an article over at the Cato Institute that insists outsourcing hasn't been responsible for job loss and just because that's the kind of balanced guy I am there's also a link to a post that wonders just exactly what will be left for us to do one we export all of our manufacturing.
The article at Cato is written by Alan Reynolds and it disputes any loss in jobs due to outsourcing:
Anyone who wonders where U.S. manufacturing jobs have gone need not bother looking for those jobs in China, Japan, Hong Kong or South Korea. All those countries suffered much larger percentage declines in manufacturing jobs than the United States has. Politically inconvenient, perhaps, but true.
Reynolds doesn't think outsourcing is to blame for the loss of American jobs. He blames the economy. He sees increases in worker productivity as one of the main factors behind the continued unemployment rates despite an improving economy. His article is here.
Personally I think we could solve this whole "productivity" thing by getting less done. However, I think I might need to clear that with my boss first.
Meanwhile, over at Randomize there are some concerns about this outsourcing thing:
If we continue to offshore our best industries, what exactly are we "exporting"? It's not raw materials, cars, food, electronics, or computers.
Read the rest of the article here as well as an additional article here that makes some great points.