Offshoring American Dream

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Recommended: Globalization and its impact

With globalization moving labor to developing countries became usual practice for big corporations in the 20th century. They use it to cut on the cost of production and workers in the developing country are happy to be able to work and provide for their families. The companies are often vilified for exploiting the workers and providing poor working conditions. In the article “The Noble Feat of Nike,” Johan Norberg shares her research on factory workers in Vietnam and offers their point of view on outsourcing. A young Nike worker, Norberg interviews, explains that the conditions in the factories are far better than in the sunny humid fields. She is satisfied with the wages, and is grateful for the lifestyle she can now afford. Her new income allowed her to buy a car and fix her house, and her son doesn’t have to work instead of going to school, like every middle class family in America.
American prosperity was built on the backs of middle class families with one or both parents working in the manufacturing and living their American dream. When companies moved big portion of their manufacturing to China these workers had to be displaced to different jobs that were created as a result of the higher profits companies earned and invested back in the economy. The new jobs often needed training, but were better paid, and at the same time consumers enjoyed the price cuts in the products they were buying. Economists call it win-win situation where more jobs are created in the U.S., the economy benefits from the companies’ higher profits and people from developing countries have a chance for better life. However the lives of the families of the workers that lost their jobs to offshoring have changed irreversibly. U.S. companies more than d...

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...New York: AMACOM, 2005. Kindle file.
MacDonald, Liz. “Companies Stashing Profits Overseas.” Fox Business. Fox News Network, LLC. 11 Mar. 2013. Web. 23 Apr. 2014.
Norberg, Johan. “The Noble Feat of Nike.” The New World Reader: Thinking and Writing about the Global Community. Ed. Gilbert H. Muller. 4th ed. Boston: Wadsworth, 2014. Print.
“Offshoring.” Encyclopedia Britannica. 2014. Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Web. 14 Mar. 2014.
“Offshoring. No Big Deal?” Industrial engineer: IE 44.6 (2012): 16. EBSCOhost. Web. 22 Apr.
2014.
Schafer, Lee. “Solution to skill gap is investment in training.” Star Tribune 18 Sep. 2013: D.1. ProQuest. 23 Apr. 2014.
Taylor, Timothy. “In Defense of Outsourcing.” CATO Journal. Vol. 25.2. (Spring 2005): 367-377. EBSCOhost. Web. 14 Mar. 2014.
“Worker Displacement: 2007-2009.” Targeted News Service. 26 Aug 2010. ProQuest. Web. 20 Mar. 2014.

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