Outlanding Outsourcing

Scorp writes Outlandish outsourcing: What are its long-term effects? | TechRepublic. A wonderful article on protectionism, outsourcing and free market. The ultimate question raised by author is what would happen if US Govt or any govt for that matter would try to fix it. A must read

And they call this "protectionism"…why??

It doesn't protect the rights of the workers if the company is forced to lay off employees, or, worst case, to close its doors. Yet there are plenty of people who would call that company "unpatriotic" (or worse—if in fact there IS a worse insult, these days!) for contracting out the job to a foreign-based concern. The point is, though, that the Law of Supply and Demand, with its inexorable corollaries of Price and Cost, is not mocked lightly nor for long. It's also an historical fact that legislating "protective" trade laws never really works on a long-term basis. It also quickly creates an underground market for smuggled goods. In the case of application code, that smuggling may be done rather undetectably—a few .zip files e-mailed nonchalantly over the wire, and delivery is a fact.