Ed Lathrop – Tea Party Views Contributor
In the campaign season of 2012, there are allegations being made about Mitt Romney and Bain Capitol being a menace to society because they are said to be outsourcing jobs. While doing so, these accusers are inferring that somehow outsourcing takes jobs away from worthy and deserving people while ignominiously giving them to foreigners.
MILWAUKEE, WI - APRIL 03: Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks to supporters during his primary night gathering at The Grain Exchange on April 3, 2012 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Mitt Romney addressed supporters after winning primary elections in Wisconsin, Maryland and the District of Columbia. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)menace to society because they were said to be outsourcing jobs. While doing so, these accusers are inferring that somehow outsourcing takes jobs away from worthy and deserving people while ignominiously giving them to foreigners.
Running a business requires making a profit. If a profit is not made, a business will go under. When this happens, all the people working for this business lose their jobs. So, even though the motive is profit, an evil motive in some people’s minds, the end result is; profitable businesses employ people.
When a business can cut the costs of anything it needs to either purchase or produce, or it can cut the cost of any service it needs performed, this business should certainly go ahead and do so. The reason for this is simple; if costs are cut, the business will more likely show profits and these profits can be used to expand the business.
To do anything else would be foolhardy. Simply because to not expand when the opportunity exists is basically, throwing away money. Ironically, this cast aside money could land in the hands of people in other countries. However, when an opportunity to expand is seized upon, more local people will be needed to be hired in order to perform the additional tasks the business needs performed.
One way a business can cut costs is by buying machinery that will perform menial tasks for a fraction of the price it would cost to hire a person to do the same tasks. There are some very uneducated or very misinformed people who believe replacing a person with a machine is cruel. When these same folks think of how many people have been replaced by computers and how many jobs were lost when heavy machinery, such as bulldozers and backhoes were put into service, they might conclude there is very little work left for anyone.
However, the opposite is true. With their ability to do many things more cost effectively than humans can, computers and heavy machinery have created jobs for millions of people because of the vast sums of working capital they have preserved for all types of businesses . The same is true of outsourcing jobs. Outsourcing too, saves working capital for businesses and allows them to be more competitive by making their end product less expensive, thus giving them a bigger market share. Of course, these things make the business’s expansion possible, if not inevitable. It is expanding businesses that hire new employees while the fledgling businesses lay people off.
Back in the 30s, tens of thousands of men were hired to move mountains so they would be able to build bridges and roads throughout the country. The same job in 2012 would not require nearly as many people with shovels in hand. However, it would require higher skilled people to build and maintain the machinery that would now do these tasks in a more automated fashion.
This analogy describes progress. Without progress, there would be a substantial need for blacksmiths, ice delivery men and candlestick makers. Because of progress there is now a need for computer engineers, computer technicians, network supervisors, highly skilled automobile mechanics, refrigeration technicians, air-conditioning technicians and electricians.
There is also the need for the labor of many more skilled persons who do things that would have never been imagined in the 1930s! The point to all this is: jobs are not lost when businessman make the wise decision to get things done as inexpensively as possible. Quite to the contrary, being frugal creates not only jobs but wealth. Creating wealth does wondrous things for the GDP and the unemployment rate. However, it looks like America’s current leaders have chosen to attack wealth for the sake their political ambitions and at the peril of the nation’s common good.
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