Free Association

A response to Mark Cuban on Outsourcing

My response to Mark Cuban...

Read Mark's original post here: Blog Maverick

I love free markets. One of the great side-effects of free markets is that they have the potential to make many people very rich. It is this very possibility that drives innovation and that is at the heart of the power of free markets. However, it seems to me that one of the worst side effects of those who benefit from free markets, and become wealthy, is that these people are invariably driven to something akin to guilt - the outcome of which is that they begin to turn on the free market that made them rich in the first place.

Mark, I really respect what you do, and have done; I'm even excited by what you might do next. But your views on outsourcing are protectionist and cynical. The market dynamics that drive your business ventures (and pad your bank account) REQUIRE that if someone in India can do your job for 1/10th the cost, it is imperative that that job go to India. Free markets demand freedom to chase the highest economic value.

As to where that savings goes, what business is it of yours? Someone has to recieve the value of this savings. It does not matter who, as this money will flow back into the market and create value elsewhere. And speaking of politics. It is the height of self-delusion and duplicity for the left - ever willing to trumpet their "voice of the poor" legacy - to snipe at outsourcing when it is the primary and most effective means of feeding the poor, of uplifting the less fortunate countries of the world, of sharing the American dream.

Outsourcing Comes to Summer Camp

The New York Times: Outsourcing Comes to Summer Camp
Alright, so lots of foreign nationals are showing up as camp counselors to our kids in the US. Forget the tortured logic that this is "outsourcing", but whatever - I suppose now we should start to see lots of 20-somethings picketing in front of the entrance to Camp Tamakwa - saying that foreigners are stealing all the American jobs as camp counselors. Jeez, you'd think the NY Times would have better things to cover. Anything to stir the fears around outsourcing I suppose.

China and Outsourcing

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Beijing 'brainwashes Sars hero'

China continues to prove the point that while they are a strong competitor for manufacturing, the political environment there is still so bad that any serious competition with free market democracies like India for outsourcing are not to be taken seriously.

Ten Myths about Jobs and Outsourcing

Okay, so the Heritage Foundation sometimes makes my skin crawl with their liberal mixing of Politics and Religion, but here's an interesting piece on Fact vs. Myth of outsourcing. Most Americans when polled feel that outsourcing jobs to other countries is bad, almost all economists know that this is false. This site tries to document that.

The Other Side of Outsourcing

With all the political rhetoric (aka bullshit) on outsourcing coming from the left this election year, a very interesting piece on the Discovery channel (The Other Side of Outsourcing) from Thomas Friedman, a gifted columnist from the NY Times, shows the tremendous good that will come to both the world (specifically India) AND the US with continued globalization. What a breath of fresh air Friedman is - and how idiotic does the left think we are?

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