Outsourcing: the Wrong Direction for America | Teen Ink

Outsourcing: the Wrong Direction for America

April 26, 2009
By Jessica Leseberg BRONZE, Deerbrook, Wisconsin
Jessica Leseberg BRONZE, Deerbrook, Wisconsin
2 articles 0 photos 0 comments

The policy of outsourcing jobs has become one of the major issues in America today. People not only lose their line of work so that their companies are able to produce cheaper products, but they also endure strenuous pay cuts, they have difficulty finding other full-time work, and they lose the strong business connections that are built here in the United States.

One major con of outsourcing is that many local workers lose their jobs, many times larger numbers of local small-town workers (Mattern). It is these workers that allow the industries in small-towns to thrive and prosper successfully. If their jobs are stripped from them, sometimes with out proper warning, economic troubles for everyone else are sure to follow. Many of our everyday items are made by industries, such as clothing footwear, leather, and textiles, and the absences of these industries makes the availability of these resources either scarce, very expensive, and or very much on back-order (Olian).

The sad truth of outsourcing, which many people in the work force are aware of, is that pay cuts almost always are taken when it comes to outsourced jobs. If those, whose job has been outsourced, are lucky enough to find a new stable full-time position, then they can expect around a wage cut of at least fifteen percent (Olian). Although, in today’s society, many people do not find work. In fact, nearly five million people have applied for unemployment benefits, and around one point seven million work part-time jobs because full-time jobs are just not as readily available anymore (Srivastava).

Internal communications within a business can be severed, as companies move overseas. The language barrier is a huge issue, even though many countries speak English, accents and other language skills make communicating business deals that much harder (Mattern). Also, many partnerships may be broken based on a disagreement between companies concerning outsourcing, even though one company may feel that an over sea’s company will deliver more effective and cheaper results over a local company right here in the United States (Handfield). Let’s not forget, and Mattern mentions this in her “Pros and Cons of Outsourcing Jobs,” that the major outsourcing of jobs in a specific area may lead to extreme hatred or boycotting of a certain company or a certain company’s products in their own local area or even home country.

Each and every company must weigh the decision very carefully upon deciding whether or not to outsource their employee’s jobs. These companies must realize that, a choice to outsource will not only affect their employee’s lives, but also the lives of the American public as well. Outsourcing, although a cheaper way to obtain products, may not be the healthiest way to manufacture goods if, in outsourcing American jobs, our American economy has to write the check to pay for the loss of employment in the long haul.

The author's comments:
This piece was written with the help of seven sources, and the last names of the authors who originally cam up with the general concept are in parentheeses, but the general stance on outsourcing and all the information presented is completely original.

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