Off Shoring the American Consumer into Oblivion
 

Everyone is aware of it, we hear the stories and the reasoning that outsourcing and Off-Shoring jobs helps companies be more competitive.  The financial advisors and CEOs swear by it, outsourcing gives them the advantage to compete in today’s market.

First, we need to understand the difference between Outsourcing and Off Shoring. 

Outsourcing has been around for hundreds of years. Outsourcing is a way to be cost effective, while handing a process to an individual or group that either specializes in that process or can do the job more cost effectively.  In many cases your local dentist or doctor will send lab work to another organization for analysis, this is usually a good form of outsourcing which helps spread the costs and the wealth.

Off Shoring is the process that allows an organization to send the process not down the street, but to an entirely different country with completely different pay scale, human rights standards and political agendas.

Off Shoring can save thousands of dollars in payroll and benefit costs over the course of the year.  Much of what you hear is true.  Here are some examples, the median US income is in the neighborhood of $70,152 per year, that same position without benefits, and safe working conditions can bring $31,479 in China, $21,386 in the Ukraine, $18,599 in India, and $45,169 in South Africa per year for degreed workers.  This is the reason why many companies have decided to open new offices in other countries or simple offer business to foreign companies to supply those services, Call centers, IT services, accounting, manufacturing and even research and development projects.  But the real fact of the matter is that off-shoring is slowly deteriorating the American way of life and destroying American government and infrastructure simultaneously.  In fact off shoring is another term for out-sourcing the American consumer.

Let us review some facts.

Since 1992, US companies have aggressively started off-shoring American jobs partly due to heavy restrictions for H1B visa requirements and the availability and low cost of worldwide communication breakthroughs in the last ten years.  Although not actually tracked by any agency of the US government other organizations are estimated the following:  Approximately 200,000 US jobs have been off-shored each year since 1992 which accounts for 2-3 million jobs total depending on whose numbers you refer to. 

Losses to the US economy

Based upon the 200,000 jobs per year lost in the US are some astonishing figures for the last ten years: 

Losses of over $771 Billion lost in total buying power for US families with 1 wage earner over the last ten years and a net loss of $154 Billion in federal taxes income.
 

US corporations need to rethink the off Shoring of American jobs and quickly.  If they don’t, estimates for Off-Shoring American jobs is predicted to be over 15 million jobs sent overseas within the next ten years.  Based upon some predictions unemployment numbers could reach over 21 percent or higher causing a catastrophic financial recession and cause the US to lose its lead in the International Money Market.

Related Links:


http://management.about.com/cs/people/a/offshoring104.htm