In defense of job "stealing" and outsourcing

re: In defense of job "stealing" and outsourcing

Brutus — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 06:28:14 GMT

Compartative advantage is one thing but absolute advantage is another, especially when based on fiat currency and labor.

How can someone in another country doing the exact same job as an American be 10 times cheaper? If we say it is an oversupply of labor then why don't we let them all move? What are the consequences for labor to move to any location where the currency is stronger? How would you like mass migrations of billions all over the world following the fiat currency of higher value?

It isn't job stealing, but it is labor arbitrage because it is absolute advantage. These countries are using first world capital and first world education and the only thing Americans can do is take a paycut to balance the difference and then pray that we can employ most of the worlds labor very quickly.

Unless of course you truly enjoy living on about 2 dollars a day if things were truly allowed to balance with real free trade. It won't be bad for India, but it would be very hard for America to adjust to this balance especially if done over night. Even worse is they can keep the value of labor low through fiat manipulation.

re: In defense of job "stealing" and outsourcing

ricarpe — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 06:16:37 GMT

Since he is worried about Indians "stealing" American jobs, you could tell him that his intentions opening an accoutn were actually aiding in the "stealing" of business from an American bank since HSBC is headquartered in London, UK.

re: In defense of job "stealing" and outsourcing

Attackdonkey — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 20:26:14 GMT

I agree with the overall idea here, but there's nothing contrary to a free market in a person not doing business with a company because they hire foreigners? I mean it isn't just raw products that a business sells, they also sell themselves. I might support Bob's hardware (who has higher prices) over Lowe's, because Bob supports the peewee football league, while Lowe's doesn't... and likewise an American working for HSBC or Liberty National Bank will contribute back to the American culture, while an Indian can only contribute in a monetary sense in the way you mentioned, just to save money to someone on this side of the sea.

This is not of course to justify any action by the gov't in anyway. but there's no harm in people choosing to do business with the home town burger joint over a chain, or a bank with American employees over one with Indian employees.