The End Of Pensions 59

Rational people acknowledge that, as much as we may feel bad about outsourcing, there's no overt way to prevent it. This is especially true in information processing. Unless you're willing to physically cut the phone lines between here and India, you cannot outlaw some bank setting up its phone and data centers there. To some extent, outsourcing is part of the natural economic cycle. When a thing has become so mundane that it can get done in Borneo, it's not the thing you want to be jumping into. Yesterday's high tech is today's commodity. That's why IBM sold off its PC business -- and believe me, that bothers me, but I understand why they did it. They want to stay at the top of the food chain, rather than stand in compebreastion with any clown who can buttemble a PC. If our politicians want to help us, they'd do better to focus on the issues that drive onshore production prices up unnecessarily -- such as unwarranted legal and regulatory burdens. Also, I think we'd do better to shift from an income tax to a sales tax. The income tax taxes what you produce; a sales tax taxes what you consume. A tax code that rewarded production and savings would push us in the right direction in terms of addressing our fundamental problems. Unfortunately, these issues are too abstract for the average voter to understand, so the politicians aren't highly motivated to do the right thing.

I thought it was funny during the presidential debates when Kerry first accused Bush of encouraging outsourcing, and then went on to advocate making it easier for Americans to purchase prescription drugs from Canada. That illustrates the fundamental situation: It's "outsourcing" when the other guy does it, but an essential frugality when you do it.