Some comments I sent to a friend on this issue (many emails back and forth)

"Company's are free to outsource jobs as voters are free to add tariffs or restrictions on shipping these jobs overseas. That is what America is all about. I am not a strong believer in a welfare state however I also do not believe in a country with only the rich and the poor with no in between."

"Fine we disagree, however when I interviewed for a tax position and fifty-seven of the sixty employees were in India, which shocked me, well that too me is more like amputating both legs and one arm. Personally I think "outsourcing" high paying jobs will not work until wages even out with China and India which I think will be many many years from today..."

"Did you read Economist Paul Samuelson, a Nobel Prize winner, paper stating that the economic effect of outsourcing is similar to allowing mass immigration of workers willing to compete for service jobs at extremely low wages. They can and will drive down the income for huge swaths of the middle class, even if they benefit their employers. "Mainstream trade economists have insufficiently noticed the drastic change in mean U.S. incomes and in inequalities among different U.S. classes,". Well?"

"True, I did wonder why businesses get to write off all of their foreign source expenses, including wages to employees, and other tax breaks (at least until they bring back the cash which they usually don't anyway). The answer is that businesses take on great risks to provide jobs for the country. Wait a minute, they are creating jobs in foreign countries, while getting the tax breaks, financial bail-outs, research grants, and law enforcement provided by American taxpayers. Looks like a loophole to me"

"If we allow American companies to outsource to countries that don't have laws (or don't enforce laws) for environmental protection, worker safety, and child labor, etc.. American workers simply cannot compete. It's not a level playing field. If we continue to allow unrestricted outsourcing, the playing field will be leveled by the degradation of the American worker and American society."

"Its not efficiency, Company's outsource to make more money, period. If it was efficiency CEO's salary's would be much much lower"

"I read recently that HP fired thousands of workers and outsourced their jobs. If you want companies to stop doing this just don’t buy their products or services effectively making outsourcing a bad idea financially. The problem is cheap labor leads to cheap products and when it comes time to pay at the register most really don’t care about those people who lost their jobs cause you just got a cheaper product."

"Is foreign outsourcing of American jobs by American Companies immoral? Its about money...not morality."

"Lawmakers in many states and in the United States Congress have identified foreign outsourcing as a threat to US employment and prosperity. If no action is taken US companies will continue to fire American workers in significant numbers and replacing them with foreign workers in low-wage countries such as India, China and Eastern Europe. Of course, outsourcing is nothing new however this time it is different. Though the US and State governments and American Corporations have been outsourcing domestically for decades everything has changed as many more service jobs are leaving. The recent increase in foreign outsourcing in which US companies purchase services from foreign-based providers has been made increasingly cost effective due to the personal computer and the Internet. The game is over - get use to low paying US jobs."

"I read from several sources, that over one third of the recent world trade growth has been achieved by means of foreign outsourcing to other countries. That this has caused the loss of millions of jobs in the United States and has had a major effect on the US Economy. Foreign outsourcing has changed the demand for skilled and unskilled labor and altered the structure of wages in the United States. Foreign outsourcing sends production to countries where labor costs are lower. As a professional, I have seen many American businesses outsource their projects to foreign countries. American businesses do not fail to realize that they are spending their money overseas and are not supporting the US economy. They are aware that they are causing American workers to lose their jobs. Why outsource? To save money as tariffs have been eliminated or reduced. They could care less about you or me. Its about the bottom line and they argue that they will be fired by there investors if they don't follow this path (yet Germany is successful without this approach as it has yet outsourced to the extent we do - interesting)."

"The fact is there is no such thing as a public company which is an American Company, unless its employee are here in America, at least to the extent greater than fifty percent. Most if not all are multinational and have employees all over the world and the owners of their stock come from all corners of the earth. If quality services can be obtained from a third world country where labor is one tenth the cost than they believe they have an obligation to their owners to find the best/cheapest service possible. Yes they tell us it painful to be an overpaid poor American and it will really take some time for us to get use to this new life of low wages. Just do your research to determine what jobs will remain in America and what skills will be required. As we send all of these middle class jobs away Corporations don't care if they destroy the American middle class but they do care about the bottom line. So what if they further separate the rich from the poor leaving the bulk of jobs in the remaining low paying service sector that can not be effectively outsourced."

"Why? The internet changed everything. It used to be only the manufacturing sector. Now thanks to the internet its both the service and manufacturing sectors. Well, I think no tariffs equal no jobs."

"Germany's system seems to work from what I have read and our system appears not to work so well. We focus on short-term profits. With respect to the ramifications of "outsourcing", well I'm fine with outsourcing blue collar jobs, as you can at least go back to college and in theory get a white collar job or you could have in the past. White collar jobs, well unless you have some replacement lined up I am not a fan of outsourcing these jobs. I have seen company's sold only because top management wanted profits today. How is that efficiency? Hundreds of jobs were than lost. Did this really help the investor or did it maximize the profits of the the CEO and top management? I believe job creation should be our number one goal here in the US and I think restrictions should be implemented for large corporations who than outsource jobs outside the US. With respect to small corps I think you do whatever you need to do as competition is fierce and capital is limited and therefore the rules are completely different."

"Weighing " the interests of top management with the interests of the person holding the job"...there needs to be some check and balance or our system will not work. Top management will sell the company or increase short term profits to maximize share value in the short term. You can check this imbalance with some form of employee participation. To what extent I am not sure. Again I'm no expert...just sharing my thoughts."

Thinking this through....interesting comment on Germany, is that true? That at large German companies, for example, half of a supervisory board -- which plays a key role in determining the company's strategy and direction -- is elected by employees?"

"Would the supervisory board outsource your job to India or China if they knew they themselves would be not re-elected? Seems that system works the best as they will do what is best for the Company and the employees. If they outsourced other employees they would themselves not be elected. Safe system I think. Can't fail."

"In our system the CEO's pay is, many times, set by the board of directors' and also the pay/benefits/connections for the board of directors' is set by the CEO. Conflict of interest?"

"In our system the CEO makes an income of hundreds or thousands of times more than the average worker. In Japan for example, the CEO makes less than 20 times the pay of the average worker. Makes you wonder how the CEO's get by in Japan."

"Many say they hate Obama for trying to turn us toward socialism but point to Germany as a success story, yet Germany is socialist. They pay much higher taxes, and they are taken care of from the womb to the tomb as a result. Employees participating in management? Isn't that similar to the dreaded Union word)?"

"How can it be that "socialist" Germany is doing better than "democratic" America? How can a country that controls so many damn social programs possibly survive and flourish?"

"The German model is better than its American counterpart. Is this true? I have read at large German companies, for example, half of a supervisory board -- which plays a key role in determining the company's strategy and direction -- is elected by employees. That stands in stark contrast to the dog-eat-dog world of American capitalism, where companies are run only to maximize profits for shareholders and top management. Germany has posted many months of job growth. The German rebound comes at a time when the standoff in the U.S. between business, labor and government is growing increasingly tense."

"Are American taxpayers paying to get their jobs taken away from them? System is broken. Management I have talked with in recent years over drinks, overseas, and in private, are very worried. I have heard "I am patriotic but when I see where my corporation is investing, where it is doing R&D;and especially where it is hiring, I worry. It's leaving America." What can we do? How about this? Tariffs to start. I think we lost the white collar jobs to India but we can get back the blue collar jobs and manufacture back in the US if we start taxing goods coming back in the US. I think it is difficult to do this with white collar jobs. That is what I would do as a start. Tax Corps that incur expenses in the US and deduct these expenses and that transfer jobs to India or China. Lets also require Corps to tell us how many employees are in America as a percentage of total employees. These Corps would no longer be considered American corps but multi-national corps. They would lose certain benefits that they take for granted starting with the designation that they are truly an American Corp, they are not. That is at least a start."

"Funny thing is, outsourcing not only destroys the American dream, it is also destroying America. Eliminate the middle class with all its benefits to society and you eliminate a large part of our government tax revenue with it. Corps were able to avoid paying taxes legally but the middle class always paid their taxes and now they are gone...goodbye American dream and also goodbye America."