Policy Paper 11/4/04 The exporting of American jobs is an issue that is important and will become increasingly so as more and more white collar jobs are shipped over seas. American companies in the past few decades have been sending American jobs overseas paying residents of other countries pennies on the dollar what they had paid American workers to do. This saves the companies millions of dollars on labor costs but costs Americans precious jobs. As the problem of job outsourcing becomes more of an issue in politics, elected officials like the President and Congress will no longer be able to ignore the dilemma.
The war in Iraq has been at the forefront of the presidential race but the importance of outsourcing American jobs seems to have been slightly overshadowed. If the issue of outsourcing is not watched carefully and a definitive plan hammered out, a trickling down of negative effects may occur within the U. S. economy. However, there is a polarized opinion on the effects of this “phenomenon.” In recessions of the past the American worker was laid off with the impression they would be rehired as soon as demand for goods and services were presented again.
Now people in jobs from computer programmers to telephone operators are losing their jobs and never returning to the same field again. The big issue here is that if we continue outsourcing specific jobs overseas we could erase a whole industry of job opportunity from the American people. Economists say the framework of the U. S. labor force has been changed due to past outsourcing of jobs by this country. The more outsourcing that continues the more our job force’s structure will change.
As a result, the American worker can no longer wait to be rehired into the same job or profession. Using their time while unemployed, Americans are retraining themselves and attempt to step into an entirely different career. There are many key people that factor in on this issue of job outsourcing. First is the American worker. When most people think of jobs being sent overseas they think of factory workers or telephone operators, but the recent trend in the outsourcing of jobs has been higher paying jobs like accountants, computer programmers, or financial analysts.
These jobs are considered white-collar jobs. In this election candidates will try to appeal to everyone who votes. Blue-collar workers typically vote Democratic where as white-collar workers generally vote Republican. The significance of this is that as the issue is more widely recognized by the public, the more pull a politician’s stance on outsourcing will be on the outcome of the votes he or she gets. Since outsourcing has begun effecting both party lines, Republican and Democrat officials will be interested because members of congress are self-interested. Congressmen who continue to evade the issue and avoid taking a strong stance on this issue will lose votes when it comes to election time and that doesn’t serve in the best interest for any politician.
The other big player in this issue is big business. As labor is offered at cheaper rates overseas, it is very tempting for businesses to take advantage of that resource. Saving money is a great way to raise profits and stock values of companies. This brings up the hardest part of this issue. Americans own stock in the big companies that outsource jobs, if the company does well then the stock does well and it helps the investor. The average family makes between 33 to 45 thousand dollars a year.
People in this bracket generally rely on their job to provide income and security for their family, not the value of stock. The middle class is taking the biggest hit and has the most to loose from outsourcing. The middle class has traditionally been the backbone of America ever since WWII. It has always been in any candidate’s best interest to appeal to this group of voters. There are many things on the American political agenda that are being addressed right now. It is hard to push for attention on an issue like this one while there is a controversial war going on.
It is hard to hope for policy solutions when there is so much turmoil going on within our government. The issue of job outsourcing is almost waiting in line for legislation behind issues like Iraq, the price of medical care, social security, and terrorism. One day the issue will need to be solved if not brought under control and regulation. There is not any clear-cut policy solutions to this issue. It is hard to find a policy that a company will adhere to without protest.
If a policy negatively effects a big company like SBC or General Electric owners and stockholders are going to fight that policy. One way to help some of these jobs stay in America is to have the government slow outsourcing of jobs that Americans are qualified and trained to do. If a company were going to outsource jobs maybe a good policy solution would be to match, if not double the number of jobs in the states to that of the number of jobs being shipped away. Another thing to consider is that the government doesn’t necessarily have to directly regulate business hiring. The government could impose a self-regulatory policy where as the big companies could set their own rules and guidelines and have an industry standard for the amount of outsourcing a company can do. In Kingdon’s “Three Streams” of agenda studying, problem stream, political stream, and policy stream the three streams of job outsourcing haven’t quite met together for a real policy that is set in stone.
There is definitely a problem stream that is rapidly growing. The political stream is overflowing so much the issue is being drowned out by other political issues. As for the policy stream, it seems to be a small stream that no one can really figure out. Once someone finds a fair and just set of policy regulations and picks a good policy window to present it in I believe there could possibly be a good solution to this problem.