Hundreds of years after Adam Smith demonstrated that free trade between nations enriched both nations, mercantilism is alive and well even among those who are smart enough to know better.
It is very odd to see someone like Rogers Cadenhead argue against outsourcing on this sort of basis,
I don’t begrudge Seal’s people taking their shot at the Indian dream, but I think it’s in Americans’ self-interest to make outsourcing as expensive as possible.
This sort of myopic (and wrong-headed) version of American — and, even more directly, European — self-interest has helped to condemn hundreds of millions of people to needless poverty around the world. Specifically, American and European agricultural policies and protectionist trade policies have made it almost impossible for farmers and workers in the developing world to be competitive. The result is a double whammy — artificially high prices for goods in the United States and artificially inflated poverty levels in the developing world.
If Europe and the United States were serious about tackling third world poverty, the single most effective thing they could do would be to end their obscenely subsidized support of agriculture and other protected industries.
In a world where technology has largely wiped out the importance of distance, locking out Indian IT workers simply because they live at the “wrong” GPS coordinates is equally absurd and economically damaging to both the United States and India.
The utility of GPS has encouraged other nations to pursue development of their own satellite navigation systems. The article describes the GLONASS and GALILEO…I was Lost – But Not Now Thanks to GPS data. I was Lost – But Not Now