The region of Bangalore in southern India is a hotbed of outsourcing companies. The area is saturated with Indian companies who hire the best and brightest to do everything from tax preparation to personal assistants to tutoring for your child’s homework.
While we in the US are reaping the benefits of lower prices and great quality, the people of India are also reaping the benefits of higher employment, wages, and standard of living increases. Seems like a win-win to me. Many folks are complaining about outsourcing however. I don’t see the issue on a macro-level. Unemployment remains under 5% which is very close to full employment when you consider the folks who are either “unemployable” or simply do not wish to work. So I don’t buy the argument that outsourcing is costing us jobs. Now, on a micro-level, I am sure there have been families hurt by jobs moving off-shore. And until retraining takes place in certain “commodity” industries, there will be families in the US hurt by off-shoring.
This is one of those issues not going away any time soon! Instead of putting our head in the sand, the church needs to become informed about the issue and its impact on our parishioners and our mission fields.
todd nelson 