Is outsourcing good for the U.S. Economy? In a globalized economy, many jobs once done in the U.S. are now "outsourced" to other countries.

• Author: Levy, Philip
• Position: DEBATE

YES Outsourcing--sending manufacturing or services work abroad when it can be done there more cheaply-can be a tough sell in the best of times. It's even more of a challenge when jobs in the U.S. are already hard to final, and it's painful to think of precious jobs being shipped overseas. If only we kept the work at home, one might think, we could make a dent in unemployment.

There are at least two problems with such reasoning. First, many American jobs are connected to exporting. This is part of the premise of President Obama's goal of doubling U.S. exports over the next five years. The U.S. is still a great place to build large passenger aircraft, make sophisticated machine tools, or design computer software. It's the world's third-biggest exporter (behind China and Germany).

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But the U.S. can be an expensive place to make T-shirts or assemble electronics. If the U.S. were to turn away from free trade and block outsourcing of this kind, other countries would respond by blocking the purchase of American-made goods. That would cost even more American jobs.

The other reason the link between outsourcing and jobs isn't so simple is that the money saved from outsourcing some jobs can be used to create other jobs in the U.S. A start-up company, for example, may succeed only if it can use an inexpensive foreign call center for its customer service. In that case, blocking outsourcing wouldn't keep any jobs in the U.S. Without the ability to outsource some of its work, the start-up wouldn't be able to get off the ground in the first place, and the other jobs it creates would never exist.

Some of the best goods and services come from the U.S.; others come from abroad. Outsourcing and trade give U.S. businesses and consumers access to them all.

--PHILIP LEVY

American Enterprise Institute

NO Outsourcing may sound like a good deal for American businesses, bur in practice it's very bad for our economy.

First, when workers lose jobs to outsourcing, they...