U.S. Companies Should Not be Allowed to Move Overseas

Position Paper

3/7/13

What is offshoring? Offshoring is when a company moves its production overseas. Work is sometimes offshored in order to cut labor expenses. Other times, work is offshored for strategic reasons for such reasons as to enter new markets or to skirt regulations that prevent specific activities domestically. “During the last three decades, domestic manufacturing employment of U.S.-based multinational corporations have fallen steadily between 1982 and 1999, and foreign manufacturing employment of U.S. multinational factories increased from 26 percent to nearly 40 percent of their labor force.” (Harrison, Ann) These parallel developments have led critics of globalization to conclude that US firms are shutting down factories at home and shifting employment abroad in order to lower labor costs. Concerns about off shoring and outsourcing have intensified as newly released data indicate a further decline in manufacturing employment both by U.S.-based corporations and for the U.S. economy as a whole. United States based companies should keep their factories in the United States if possible and the government should place a tax on those leaving because it is hurting our economy and society. There are reasons for going overseas now but things could be done to make it a more level playing field and getting companies to stay “home”. There are many different stances on his issue and it is understandable that people involved in the business and making a profit are going to have different views then normal people or working class people. With each stance there are advantages and disadvantages, but as a whole and in regards to the United States and our country’s well being, moving overseas should not be allowed and hurts our country. There are many reasons that companies should not be allowed to move their factories overseas. Keeping factories in the U.S. helps our country by stimulating the U.S. job market, the poor working conditions overseas, makes all companies equal in producing and keeping pricing fair, keeps the quality high, lowers transportation cost, and the legal issues that are attached to moving overseas.
The main issue and argument for keeping the factory jobs in the U.S. is because factories employ the highest amount of workers and was how the United States was built. The middle class in the U.S. is what stimulates the economy, which is why the loss of the manufacturing to overseas has been recognized so evidently with the struggling economy. There are sets of studies that reached the conclusion that jobs abroad replaced jobs at home, which increases our unemployment rate and has led to the decline in the economy. Closing a factory in America, especially in a small town, results in many local families losing their main source of income. It also pushes up the unemployment percentage in these areas, which lowers the standard of living for many families and can increase crime levels. Another big issue, which especially affects the U.S. economy, is the idea of a competitive market. By having these companies overseas it allows them to produce items at a lower price so then they can sell at a lower price and take over a market because smaller U.S. based companies cannot compete with their prices. This leads to more factories going overseas and taking jobs away from the U.S. and this cycle continues just so companies can be competitive with prices forgetting how many workers are without a job. With the factories being overseas and not watched as closely, and worried more about the speed and amount of items produced, there have been problems with the quality of the products. “Some of the unskilled factory workers in China are not paid an hourly rate, but rather are paid for each completed unit.” (Fitzgerald, Helen) This means that workers are pressured to produce quantity before quality, which can result in lower-quality products. Many