As we enter the last stretch in the 2012 presidential campaign, both the Republicans and the Democrats have decided to spend incredible sums for their respective campaigns, or better yet, to hammer their opponents into the ground.
I think one of the reasons that we are exposed to a daily barrage criticizing the opponent, is because neither of the candidates are able to really articulate how they are going to right the course. However, that may be a discussion for another day, as I would like to devote this post to the issue of outsourcing.
The Democrats have made a lot of hay out of the allegation that Mitt Romney was responsible for outsourcing during his tenure at Bain & Co. I am not certain that the outsourcing occurred during his tenure, or in fact that he was responsible for it. However, even if that were the case, I fail to understand the problem that outsourcing raises with respect to a candidates ability to faithfully serve as president of the United States.
From my perspective, there is a predicate question. Is outsourcing the evil that the Democrats claim. The secondary questions are (1) and even if outsourcing is evil, and even if Mitt Romney was responsible for outsourcing, does that in any way affect or limit his ability to lead this nation, and (2) is this really one of the core issues in this election, (3) is the negative campaign (on both sides of the divide) driven by an inability to set forth in concrete terms how a particular candidate or party will effect short term refief as well as lonf term answers to the obvious questions. I will deal with the first question in this post and leave the other questions for my followers to ponder.
When I was in law school we had a professor who expected everyone in the class to be prepared for class so that they could participate in the many questions posed by the professor and participate in the open dialogue. He took great exception to those students were not properly prepared, and as he explained it, this class was like in open ground bag lunch. To the extent you attend the lunch and expect to eat (derive the benefits) you have to contribute.
We live in a global economy. We are very happy when Boeing, IBM, eBay, Amazon, Microsoft, Dell, and numerous other companies generate significant revenue and profits through foreign sales. All of these companies outsource manufacturing and /or service operations. It makes sense – we live in a global economy. While we used to comparison shop in the neighborhood, and as our reach grew we shopped throughout the city, state and country, we now are able to comparison shop anywhere on the planet. To remain relevant and to maximize profits, companies must avail themselves of the best the world has to offer – and similarly they have to offer the best value proposition to their clientele. Is it reasonable to think that American businesses will flourish if they operate with one hand tied behind their back. In addition, is it reasonable to expect our global trading counterparts to embrace our products and services if we reject theirs.
