"Cold Calling"

In practically every commercial concerning the candidates, outsourcing, trade, American jobs, and the economy seem to be hot topics. So what exactly is the right solution? This post isn't necessarily to try to find which is better; to outsource or not to outsource, more international trade or less international trade - because of course they each have their pros and cons - but rather, it's how to lower the cons of each...

Many Americans advocate reducing trade because they think it would preserve more jobs here at home, but is that really the case? A couple of years ago, the government demanded a sugar quota wherein they reduced the amount of sugar imported into the U.S. in order to preserve jobs in the U.S. sugar industry. What happened was some candy firms were forced to close down because the price of sugar was way too high (in comparison to the world price) for them to continue their business. All in all, those who gained included the U.S. companies that produced the sugar but the U.S. companies that used sugar, their employees, and us as consumers lost out.

Outsourcing ss kind of a double edged sword, people are losing their jobs to global outsourcing, about 200,000 a year to be exact, but isn't it true that approximately 7 million jobs are gained and lost every year in the U.S., 30 million jobs are created as old ones are destroyed? Service sector jobs account for 70 to 80% of the jobs in the U.S. so can we really be doing that much damage by outsourcing? Outsourcing allows corporate owners to benefit, investors to benefit and most importantly, consumers to benefit. It saves money for the corporations since they're able to lower the expenses and it thus lowers the prices to consumers, in effect boosting the economy. Do we consider technological change a form of outsourcing? Why isn't that looked down upon if it has more or less the same effect? But then what about those who lost their job and don't have any training in any other field? Should they just be left to live in poverty because their job was shipped to another country for the sake of a cheaper commodity? Then we have the issue of the effect it has on other countries. Are we not, although not directly, promoting sweatshops, encouraging low standards of living to foreign nations? Is the solution to continue to outsource while also training more workers in the U.S. to occupy other jobs? Or should we just bring the jobs home and risk having to spend a higher price on goods?