Bring on the outsourcing!

All too often we hear many economic woes blamed on China, with its cheap and limitless workforce. Western trade unions in those professions threatened by outsourcing and moving jobs become the most vocal advocates of protectionist policies and government bail-outs, at the expense of the taxpayer of course, who is inevitably presented with a heftier tax bill and artificially engineered consumer choice patterns. We pay more to obtain less.



At the student seminar in Montreal hosted by the Fraser Institute the participants were treated to an insightful presentation by Germain Belzile on why we should NOT fear China, as well as how frequently we are the cause of our own problems. Government and advocates turn a deaf ear, as blame-passing is an art human beings have mastered in its totality. The failure to broaden one's perspective, however, is not a luxury a responsible government can afford in the long term: globalization expands the opportunities for positive outcomes but also exacerbates the consequences of short-sighted choices.



Today the progress from primary economy based on agriculture and natural resources towards tertiary service economy is nothing short of an axiom. In this optic, the gradual death of the manufacturing industry is a sign of progress if it is counterbalanced by an increase in tertiary skill, which few politicians seem to emphasize. On the contrary, trade unions and sympathetic administrators pretend to serve the nation's interest by holding the economy in an artificial time-freeze, averse to change in the name of the common good.

Job losses due to outsourcing overseas are a tragedy for many families. Bail-outs and welfare are, however, a greater tragedy in the making due to the consequent increased reliance on government rather than hard work and skill progress. Cars produced in China may justify one-off shipping costs, but every technological item will someday require maintenance which cannot be outsourced completely. Notwithstanding maintenance, at any given time every country has a skill deficit, be it in plumbing or software engineering.

Simplistic as it may sound, consider the case of automotive servicing. Manufacturing workers should ideally be cogent in the mechanics and nitty-gritty of car functioning,according to their speciality. Would it not be advisable for them to pool their individual skills together and open up a car servicing station when their plant closes down? Would it not be beneficial to the consumer, whose expense for vehicle maintenance would be reduced due to increased competition?

The provincial and federal governments have the duty to recognize market failure as a necessary step in capitalist progress, which punishes inefficient resource use and attempts at economic engineering. Thus current expenditure for agonizing industries should be immediately redirected to skill programmes that would allow workers to have a job when the industry dies. A manufacturing employee whose job is at risk should have the opportunity to re-train for free in his (little, admittedly) free time in a skill that cannot be outsourced. I can't send my leaking sink to China, can I? And plumbers are expensive!

Skill re-training instead of stagnation, dignity of work instead of the burden of welfare and, above all, an ultimate benefit to all consumers and the economy.