The Outsourcing Bogeyman

Abstract

WHEN presidential election year coincides with an uncertain economy, campaigning politicians invariably invoke an international economic issue as dire threat the well-being of Americans. Speechwriters denounce the chosen scapegoat, the media provides blanket coverage of the alleged threat, and legislators scurry introduce supposed remedies. The cause of this year's commotion is offshore outsourcing-the alleged migration of American jobs overseas. The depth of alarm was strikingly illustrated by the firestorm of reaction recent testimony by N. Gregory Mankiw, the head of President George W. Bush's Council of Economic Advisers. No economist really disputed Mankiw's observation that is just new way of doing international trade, which makes it a good thing. But in the political arena, Mankiw's comments sparked furor on both sides of the aisle. Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry accused the Bush administration of wanting to export more of our jobs overseas, and Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle quipped, If this is the administration's position, I think they owe an apology every worker in America. Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, meanwhile, warned that can be problem for American workers and the American economy. Critics charge that the information revolution (especially the Internet) has accelerated the decimation of U.S. manufacturing and facilitated the outsourcing of service-sector jobs once considered safe, from backroom call centers high-level software programming.

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