Intervention Needed to Slow Loss of Jobs

Regarding “Report Finds Outsourcing Will Create New U.S. Jobs,” March 30:

How exactly can outsourcing create new jobs here in the U.S.? Yes, “greater profits theoretically allow companies to buy new equipment, build laboratories and make other investments that can create jobs.”

This may be true, but if any job can now be done for a lower salary in other countries, where will this equipment be made, these laboratories be built, these investments made? What is the incentive to do these things in the U.S.? From a business perspective, none. All these things can now be achieved at lower cost elsewhere.

We are rapidly reaching the point where only jobs absolutely requiring a physical presence in the United States (such as flipping burgers at McDonald’s, cleaning bathrooms in office buildings or mowing lawns) cannot be outsourced.

Without some form of government intervention (sanctions, new trade agreements), this country is in serious trouble unless foreign costs and wages increase rapidly to bring them in line with those in the U.S.

Matthew Klipper

Los Angeles