Free trade and offshoring are great!

[Bradical79]

At least according to my Microeconomics class.

"Offshoring also increases the demand for complementary jobs in the United States. Jobs that are close substitutes for existing U.S. jobs are lost, but complementary jobs in the United States are expanded. For example, the lower price of writing software code in India may mean a lower cost of software sold in the United States and abroad."

That's from my textbook. Y'all can imagine how frustrating it is to read this after paying a small fortune for this class that is required to earn my degree in software development

[antigop]

1. Yes, according to Hillary, there are "advantages" to outsourcing

http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/ndtv-exclusive-hillary-clinton-on-fdi-mamata-outsourcing-and-hafiz-saeed-full-transcript-207593

Hillary Clinton: So you are talking about the outsourcing of US jobs to India. We know it's been going on for many years now and it's part of our economic relationship with India and I think there are advantages with it that have certainly benefitted many parts of our country and there are disadvantages that go to the need to improve the job fields of our own people and create a better economic environment so it's like anything like the pluses and minuses.

And Hillary never mentions exactly what IT workers are supposed to train for after their jobs are outsourced.

[Warpy]

2. Sure, everything gets a little cheaper! (at first)

Then they wonder why sales on that cheaper stuff have gone down instead of up and grumble about market saturation.

It just never seems to dawn on them that they've killed the demand side of the equation. No matter how much stuff chokes the supply side and how cheap it is, people without money are not going to be able to buy it.

I don't know what's so difficult about that and why it's so problematic for these fat captains of industry to see it.

You might raise the point in class about how selling software pays eight dollars an hour, not nearly enough to afford the software, the computer to run it, or the safe housing in which to lock it up when one is out selling Indian software. Your microeconomics prof needs a wakeup call from outside the Chicago School of Economics.

[jtuck004]

3. But the jobs are replaced with service jobs that don't pay enough to buy a computer,

much less Internet access.

On the other hand, it will bring people out of poverty in India while in the U.S. the number in poverty or those considered working poor increase, along with those needing food stamps.

[fasttense]

4. It doesn't necessarily bring people out of poverty.

If shipping jobs to other countries raises people out of poverty then why are the majority of people who work in China's factories so absolutely destitute?

Why is India NOT a powerhouse economy?

How come Mexico is NOT a major industrial center?

Where is all this grand benefit from corporate jobs moved out of the US into poverty stricken regions?

There is no grand benefit to the country receiving the jobs. Corporations don't go to India or China in order to pay good wages. They go there in order to pay LOW, LOW wages.

It's a con, a scam, an illusion.

"Here I'll give you these jobs we have in the US and you will be rich."

"But wait, you mean you will only pay me the absolute minimum my weak central government will allow you to pay me?"

"Yes, otherwise why would I move the job? If I have to pay the same or just a little less, there is no value or profit for me to move the job. But if I can get away with paying you pennies and your government allows it, then I'll do it."

Corporations are NOT improving any country's economy. They are paying absolutely minimum pay to workers. There may be more workers who live on the edge of starvation but that does NOT improve a country's economy. If it did, Mexico would be a paradise by now.

[jtuck004]

5. Uh, this doesn't mean they have a dishwasher and can't pay the electric bill or eat like here.

It means they no longer live in a hut in a backwoods in China with a tin roof and 12 people without even a goat. Instead they live in a 4 bedroom house with 1 bathroom and 12 people, something that code officers usually only ignore in U.S. neighborhoods where they really aren't welcome. Eating out in budget food places is more common because there is not enough space in the home for much of a kitchen. 'Course, that's if they are a doctor and can afford it...

So getting out of poverty can mean different things.

(But don't you know, no matter what, "you can make it in America if you try"?)

Generally I agree with you about many large corps, and virtually any corporations whose main product is financial, but not all corps are like that, so no need to beat it to death.

You are describing servitude, and in a democratic country that must be voluntary servitude, eh? So if everyone would just quit cooperating with their Masters they could stop it.

But Mr. Charlie's power is strong, and the spirit seems weak...

[niknik757]

8. Out of thin air

I love how u make up stats out of thin air!!! According to the u.s. government the average pay for outscourced labor is 13-14 times what the average pay is in non industrial jobs in their countries!!!

[Sam1]

6. Rember this is Micro and

Micro is the economic of the firm and the household. To merely agragate and apply it to Macro is the fallacy of Composition.

[Egalitarian Thug]

7. Even, or maybe especially, at the micro level this is unmitigated bullshit.

Is your Professor one with whom you can argue? I got a lot of 'A's because I regularly challenged the idea put forth during classes. Of course, I was in college a couple of decades ago and it seems to be very different today.