The truth about outsourcing

Last summer the Kerry campaign precluded all meaningful and rational discussion of the phenomenon of offshore outsourcing by using it as a demagogic tool for attacking George W. Bush. Thus, it was with great delight that I came across an insightful article in Foreign Affairs which placed outsourcing in its proper context. Penned by Daniel Drezner, the article raised many questions about the intellectual and factual integrity of Kerry's droning rhetorical drumbeat which sought to portray outsourcing as a chief driver of unemployment in the U.S. In particular, Mr. Drezner illustrated that even in the worst-case scenarios only about 0.2% of the American workforce would be affected by outsourcing.

Fortunately, Mr. Drezner has continued to stay on top of the issue and shares a variety of links to research which confirms how outsourcing's scale has been exaggerated at the same time that its complexity has been minimized.