The United States has lost a vast amount of jobs to foreign countries. Large corporations have cut jobs in the U.S. and moved them overseas to decrease their annual operating expenses, which you can't blame them because they are making decisions that will better their corporations. However, despite bettering their company from a monetary standpoint, the problem in this model is that corporations do not care about the United States—as a country. When the board members of a company meet to make decisions to cut jobs or increase productivity within a company, they are not thinking about what’s best for the country, rather they are driven by decisions that best reflect the interest of shareholders.

Decisions made today by corporate America are based on greed, because all they care about is the price per share earnings ratio to sky rocket. Upper executives do not have the capacity to make sound moral decisions that will lead to an outcome that will suit the best interest for the workers that have dedicated 30 to 40 years of their lives for the company.

This is the double-edge sword of capitalism and it’s killing the U.S. economy. In 2004, the Midwest U.S. alone lost 7,555 in a matter of three months in 2004—almost all to Mexico. This number is part of the 2.7 million manufacturing jobs lost since 2000 in the United States. Think of the economic ramifications these job losses have created, everything from paying on mortgages on homes to buying goods—severe effects trickle their way down the economic ladder. Compare this 2.7 million loss since 2000 to General Motors situation in present day 2008. The government announced this past week that if General Motors fell it could put the U.S. into a severe Recession or Depression, with the loss of 2.5 million jobs total (manufacturing, assembly, tiered suppliers, dealerships, etc). Anyway you look at it, the exchange of money from individual to business to business declines dramatically with these job losses.

I’ll keep it simple and finish up for everyone. Because of our job losses in the manufacturing and assembly sectors, this has led to auxiliary losses in other sectors and our country has become less self-sufficient in correlation to other countries, which now have those “U.S.” jobs. In other words, if you don’t make anything, then you are not appealing to trade with, and eventually countries will not trade with you. Adding to this, the U.S. is still the number one consuming country in the world—number one in imports vs. (China #1 in exports). Furthermore, if we are not making anything in our country to sell to other countries, then a trade imbalance or deficit has been created. We are already in debt as a country and the U.S. is currently borrowing money from other countries to pay for a bailout, sparked by the sub-prime mortgage crisis.

I found this documentary to be very interesting. Take a look at what Warren Buffett and David Walker are saying: http://www.iousathemovie.com/

I can't believe how many people are selecting "Good".

So the companies out source their jobs to make things cheaper? Well, if it only costs $5 to make the item (including materials and labor)... WHY are they selling it for $15 and $20? I thought they outsourced to make the prices cheaper. Why not 6 or 7 dollars instead of 20? So if they kept their business stateside it would cost them around $10 to $15 dollars to make the item (including materials and labor)... so they could still sell it for $20 or $25. Not only that but it would create jobs for many many many Americans who are on unemployment right now and those people who get those jobs will have money that they will be able to spend on "wants" not only "needs" so they would be able to buy more things, putting money back into the economy.

Everyone who selected "Good" in my opinion are feeding off of what the companies who outsource want them to think.

Lots of great arguments have already been made here. A couple that I have not seen:

1) Outsourcing US Jobs offshore can only be good if there are new jobs being created for those displaced workers to move to. Clearly right now in our economy, we are losing jobs on a net basis, so in that environment, outsourcing US jobs cannot be good in any way shape or form if it is contributing to greater domestic unemployment, which it is right now. The impact of that includes a) a reduction in the tax revenues at the state and federal levels which is one significant reason why we have such huge deficits and have become a debtor nation to China. The state of California has such a huge deficit that very important programs including education are getting cut. How is that deficit created? It all comes back to tax revenues offset by spending. Fewer jobs means less income means less in taxes and b) more unemployment means more americans receiving unemployment assistance and other public programs which further contribute to the deficit. This is such a fundamental issue yet somehow it gets glossed over. When the economy is growing and new jobs are being created, it is not noticeable, but today it is a glaring weakness in our economic policy to allow this practice to continue unfettered.

2) Treating white collar jobs as commodities, as outsourcing does, fails to take into account the human element. Just because I might be hired to do a certain job, as an employee of a company I know that if I find ways to improve the way we do things and innovate, it will reflect positively on me and help lead the way to promotions and greater compensation. When you outsource a job offshore, you significantly diminish the potential for innovation. Despite what marketing people might tell you, the outsourcing industry performs a "lift and shift" and nothing more. They take your work and move it offshore and perform it in exactly the same way as you are doing it in the US. Couple that with 50% or greater turnover rates in places like India and what you have is a situation where nobody ever sits in the job long enough to understand it well enough to actually have an opportunity to think about ways to improve it. The liklihood that an offshore employee that has been hired to perform a specific task is going to come up with ideas for innovation are virtually nil. They don't have the same motivation or opportunity. Unless you find a way to measure and quantify the concept of innovation and then build it into your contract with the outsourcing provider, innovation is just not going to happen, which will lead to stagnation. I feel this is the leading characteristic of outsourcing white collar positions that is going to lead to a permanent deterioration of the US Economy, because innovation is what made the US economy so great. Corporate greed over maximizing short term profits through labor arbitrage will lead to long term losses that ultimately may take decades to recover from, if ever.

I am not fully against outsourcing but one point of view I have not seen here is. If we outsource medium paying jobs and those jobs are replaced with less paying jobs the total number of people paying Fed Income taxes will reduce. If this happens the overall tax burden will become more burdensome to those who continue to pay taxes. With less people paying taxes and more people needing govt assistance the tax burden on those still paying taxes will grow even faster. This is one argument many have overlooked regarding the consequences of outsourcing.

What is unamerican? The political climate that lead to the economic depression we are now facing. That political climate supported big business in avoiding taxation by operating overseas, while outsourcing labor (and good paying jobs) to those in other countries who are able to work for less, due to differences in currency. Outsourcing, the practices of employing remote foreign labor to maximize profits has been the primary example of what is UnAmerican. If the jobs are being exported, is it no wonder that so many Americans are foreclosing on their homes, and are not active consumers?

The outscourcing of jobs to foreign coutries is a bad thing not only does it put the American people out of work but it also is a double whammy on the tax payer. This is not right that are jobs be sent over to some foreign country are economy is in a crisis right now and we need to keep American jobs here.