Re:I. Can’t. Take. It. Anymore!
As I said the other night, I was watching Lou Dobbs on CNN, and one of the guest columnists he had was pretty interesting. He had this to say.
Cost reductions and other benefits provide a strong incentive to outsource jobs. A company that decides to move its production overseas cuts its costs in many ways, including the following:
Extremely low wage rates
The circumvention or avoidance of organized labor
No Social Security or Medicare benefit payments
No federal or state unemployment tax
No health benefits for workers
No child labor laws
No OSHA or EPA costs or restrictions
No worker retirement benefits or pension costs
Besides cutting costs, there are other benefits to exporting jobs, including the following:
Tax incentives provided by our government
Incentives from foreign governments
The creation of new international markets for the company’s products (which ultimately empowers the company to turn a deaf ear to this country’s problems and influence)
The continued benefits of our legal system and the freedoms that we provide
The net effect of all of this is lower costs, higher revenue, higher profits, higher stock prices, bonuses for management, and the creation of wealth for a subclass that benefits from low taxes at the expense of the rest of us. – Rory L. Terry, an associate professor of finance at Fort Hays State University
[url]http://money.cnn.com/2004/03/11/commentary/dobbs/dobbs/index.htm[/url]
Basically his argument is that the business making the decision reaps the benefits with out paying the full cost. Not unlike chemical companies who use to think that washing stuff down stream was a cost effective way of getting rid of waste.