January 31, 2007
Indulging In The Politics Of Offshoring
By Priya Jestin, Staff Writer
Guess what’s one of the hottest issues in the current presidential campaign? Offshoring jobs of course. While John Kerry plays to the masses by blaming President Bush for massive job losses, he seems to have forgotten that in 1993 as Senator, he voted to implement the North American Free Trade Act (NAFTA). So, way back then, Kerry knew jobs would be lost. Interestingly in 1993 alone, Senate had reports that thousands of manufacturing jobs would be lost. Job loss estimates ranged from 22,500 to 912,000.
What people like Kerry forget in their game of politics is that a slew of new jobs has been created since NAFTA's implementation. According to Economic Policy Institute, NAFTA resulted in exports that created 794,194 new jobs. Overall, the political economy has only helped create more jobs than lost.
But, for a moment let’s assume that Kerry and his ilk succeed in restricting offshoring jobs. What happens then? The offshoring phenomenon has helped boost the economies of many countries; people in these lands now have the money and access to American goods. Through this they invest in the American economy. So if we restrict job offshoring, we’ll effectively be reducing OUR revenues and our jobs. So, what’s the better option?
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