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The Politics of Outsourcing
August 5, 2004

Editors Karen Guglielmo and Sarah Lourie of SearchCIO.com face off on the subject of outsourcing and the focus it's receiving in the political arena.

Karen writes,

"The best thing the political debate has done for the offshore outsourcing issue is to shed some light on an already highly controversial issue. Politicians have tapped into a serious concern among today's IT workforce. Whether they're bringing attention to it to obtain votes or to protect U.S. jobs, politicians can't ignore that the offshore outsourcing trend isn't going away any time soon."

While Sarah has this to say,

"The candidates in this year's presidential election have been playing on your fears and they should be ashamed. The statistics we have been fed are often overestimated or just plain wrong. Election year issues are full of buzzwords, and this year is no different. Offshoring is just that -- an election year buzzword that will burn out as soon as we elect or re-elect our next president.

How do I know this? Let's start by looking at some history. We never did have that hot war with the Soviet Union that President Reagan feared. Sen. Joe McCarthy's "communist recruiters" didn't brainwash us with their movies or music. NAFTA didn't "cause a giant sucking sound as jobs go south" quite the way Ross Perot said it would and former President George H.W. Bush did create new taxes even after we read his lips."

http://searchcio.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid19_gci990847,00.html?track=NL-338&ad=486305