The Business of Outsourcing

Outsourcing has been the topic of many political debates and continues to be a controversial issue. Critics claim that outsourcing places the corporate interests of the company and its shareholders over the job security of domestic employees leading to a detrimental effect on the local economy. This is perhaps the most common argument against outsourcing and formed a central issue in the 2004 US elections. John Kerry frequently employed rhetoric against outsourcing in his speeches to help win over US voters who had been laid off from their service jobs. In his speech at the Democratic National Convention in Boston in July 2004, Kerry made the following statement, "We're told outsourcing jobs is good for America. We're told that new jobs that pay $9,000 less than the jobs that have been lost is the best we can do. They say this is the best economy we've ever had. And they say anyone who thinks otherwise is a pessimist. Well, here is our answer: There is nothing more pessimistic than saying America can't do better." He promised to introduce new measures to protect the US economy and eliminate “tax breaks” for companies, which continued to outsource.