Exporting America

Since 2011, outsourcing jobs has become a major part of the way American companies produce goods. Outsourcing a job occurs when you obtain goods or services from a foreign supplier instead of from an internal supplier. Many companies in America pay people in other countries to produce goods instead of producing them here in the country because it seems cheaper. This practice, originally thought of as a solution to the rising prices of consumer goods has also become a problem.

While outsourcing does take away jobs from people here in the States it does help us by making prices for consumer goods lower.

Many major and small companies outsource jobs. Major companies such General Electric, Caterpillar, Microsoft, Wal-Mart, Chevron, Cisco, Intel, Stanley Works, Merck, United Technologies, and Oracle all out source jobs and have recently cut their workforce by 2.9 million people and hired 2.4 million overseas in the last decade. (Jilani)

Many of these major companies outsource jobs because people in China, Korea, Indonesia, and many other countries will work for much lower wages than people in the United States, which in return makes it cheaper for the consumers in America.

However, large companies aren’t the only ones guilty of our sourcing. While they may do it on a large scale and take the most jobs away from us in the United States, small companies outsource jobs too. Gene Marks, a writer from Huffington po and a self-proclaimed “outsource-aholic” says, “Outsourcing is a quick high and a way to feel… profitable.” He owns a small business and uses outsourcing for a number of reasons. It may be no secret that sending jobs overseas ensues cheaper production than the goods in the United States, but why?

Gene Marks, does it becaus...

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...m by taking away jobs from our communities it is supposed to help us in the long run. Production workers in the United States want more money paid to them than what company owners want to pay. This forces owners to send work overseas for cheaper production costs, which has good and bad sides. The real question however, remains unanswered as not whether or not outsourcing is good or bad. The real question remains, when we outsource jobs to foreign countries are we selling more than just our jobs to other countries?

Works Cited

Hargreaves, Steve. CNN Money: The Case for Outsourcing Jobs. 14 September 2012. 13 November 2013.

Jilani, Zaid. CHART: Top ‘U.S.’ Corporations Outsourced More Than 2.4 Million American Jobs Over The Last Decade. 19 April 2011. 11 November 2013.

Marks, Gene. Huffington Post: Hello, I Am an Outsourceaholic. 13 August 2012. 11 November 2013.