Most people would be familiar with outsourcing I guess. For those who don't know what it means, its the subcontracting of work to another company based in a different country (mostly developing countries are the recipient countries due to their cost advantage). So, is outsourcing good or bad? Well, the answer you get to that question depends on who you ask.

For example, if you ask someone working in a developed country whose job is under threat because of outsourcing, you would obviously hear that outsourcing is bad. On the other hand, employees benefitting in developing countries would opine that outsourcing is good. IMHO, outsourcing might seem bad to employees in developed countries, but there is no other way in a globalized world for companies to survive and remain profitable. Companies are always on the lookout to reduce costs and improve margins, just so that they survive. Their competitors across nations are outsourcing and if they do not, that puts them at a disadvantage so they outsource too.

The employees affected have a legitimate right to feel aggrieved. They are losing jobs - can they be happy? Well, no, they can't be happy about that situation. But, outsourcing is a reality in the world we are living in. So many companies have outsourced work to developing countries by now that if companies were forced by Govt. legislation to not outsource, they would take quite a hit on their margins. Also, that wouldn't make the developing nations very happy. They might resort to restricting trade access for certain developed countries. You'd have a tit-for-tat war. That certainly wouldn't help anyone.

Outsourcing of jobs is quite an emotive issue and looks like becoming a strong issue in the elections in the US, but fact is that its an irreversible process. A process that if sought to be reversed, would invite strong reactions from the developing countries that are the engines of growth in the world economy.

Globalization can't be a one-way street. You can't benefit from developing countries by investing in them and marketing your products in those countries and earning profits from them and at the same time say we can't outsource because our people lose jobs. It is a fact that when most foreign countries set up shop in a developing country, they drive the local companies out of business. So, people lose jobs in developing countries too as a consequence of globalization. We can't chose selective globalization.