Outsourcing Gets Personal

Having recently read Friedman's "The World is Flat", this article by David Silverman, entitled You Can't Stop a Tidal Wave with a Fork provides a solid contrast to the glorious tales of globalization touted by Friedman. The gist of Silverman is that while he himself has suffered from the drawbacks of the global era and outsourcing, he isn't about to sit by and pout (although the article itself does have its fair share of self-pity):

People ask me how I feel about my business being pushed out of existence by companies in India. They ask how I feel about greedy American companies sending the work overseas. They might as well ask me how I feel about deciding to stop a tidal wave with a fork. There's no way to regulate this global issue. It's beyond one person, or many. Dobbs can say anything he wants, but the hourly workers in India are just trying to feed their families and their bosses are using their price advantage to sell like any good businessperson would...According to Princeton professor Alan Blinder, as many as 40 million jobs may be outsourced over the coming decade or two. The only way to stop that work from flowing to cheaper labor markets would be to force companies to work within their borders and scan their e-mail for illicit projects being sent to people named Pratap. In other words, close down the country. But that's simply unworkable.

So what does Silverman suggest?

If the government wants to help small business and the American worker, it could do something to slow the pace of change. It is the speed of outsourcing, more than anything, that dislocates tens of thousands of workers a year and causes shock waves through the economy. The government could slow things down by granting subsidies to American firms to help compete with overseas companies. It could provide them incentives to buy locally. But, in the end, it can't stop the flow of work and money from traveling around the world...The U.S. would do well to stop wishing outsourcing would go away. It could do a lot more good by helping build the economic base of every country in the world.

I realize I'm a bit young to get too cynical, but "build the economic base of every country in the world"? I do strongly believe that Americans can help themselves by aiding those in other countries, but the issue of priorities is prickly. Who comes first when setting policies?