Outsourcing

Dear Victorious,

I've heard that you're involved in the outsourcing industry. Isn't that somewhat hypocritical of you? I mean, look how many U.S. jobs have been shipped off shore. How could you?

Martin V. - Plano, TX

Dear Martin,

Yes, it's true. I've worked in the outsourcing industry for years. Presently I have a consulting contract with an international IT and business services provider. That contract has a large focus on that firm's outsourcing business.

So it is hypocritical? To be honest, I've wrestled with that. But I've found peace with it ... after significant prayer and contemplation on the matter. The thing is offshoring flourishes and has done such damage to America because of a defect in the moral character of Americans. Let's face it, Americans, in general worship a false god known as "the best deal." If we can get more for less, we always assume that's best. It's been "the American way" for a long time now.

Outsourcing isn't what destroyed the jobs in America. In fact, outsourcing was invented in America and flourished here for decades. Many Americans had good jobs in outsourcing before the notion of offshoring ever turned up. So what happened? American greed, chasing more for less, found cheaper labor overseas and was willing to sell its soul to the devil for dollars.

I can assure you of this, I work in the outsourcing industry. But morally I would never, and still don't, propose offshoring as a strategy. Sending a job to a third world country must do more than labor arbitrage --- or I won't be involved in it. I focus on what is known as "transformational outsourcing," where fundamental business improvement is gained through process engineering and exploiting of technological advances. Granted that cheaper labor helps sweeten the deal. But if cheaper labor is the deal, I won't be involved. I'd rather be unemployed with my outsourcing industry contemporaries. Seriously I would!

I was traveling a week ago, and needed a shoe shine at the airport. Imagine my surprise to find that a shoe shine was $5.00. Good heavens, a scoop of ice cream costs $5 at the airport! Yesterday I was in WalMart and a pack of 10 Bic Pens was $1.00. Good heavens, how can they even make pens for that? The point is, things ought to cost more than they do. At $5 for a shoe shine, or 10 cents for an ink pen, someone isn't making a living wage. But we Americans rarely think of that. We just think the cheapest deal is the best deal. Until that mindset changes, jobs will continue to migrate to cheaper labor markets.

My prayer is that one day Americans will stop being so greedy that we'll be willing to pay a living wage to people who provide us with goods and services. I hope you'll pray that too!