I'm honestly confused by many people's stand on outsourcing, especially that of liberals.  Keith at folkbum's recently talked about why he likes Apple (link now dead... shame on your folkbum), and relates it to HP's use of outsourcing for it's technical support.  In the 5 years that I've had Dell laptops (I'm on my second), I've only had a problem I couldn't solve myself once that required a call to a technical support line.  Talk about a memorable experience.  From the very beginning, I knew I was talking to India.  I've worked with a lot of Indian consultants, and so this was easy to identify for me.  He was incredibly polite, apologetic that I was having a problem, talked me through the solution step by step, and got me up and running in less than 15 minutes.  This was not an easy problem either, as it actually involved me opening the case on the laptop.  He then promised to call me back later than night after the machine was up and running to make sure everything was still alright.  And you know what, he did.  Interestingly enough, I've had much worse experiences when calling technical support lines manned by Americans.

One particular one to Mustek stands out, where the man was hard to understand, improperly used basic terminology, and was incredibly rude and short with me.  Obviously everyone has had different experiences.  The sort of thing that we see with Keith's post is what we call a generalization.  All Asian technical support staff are apparently difficult to understand and unknowledgeable.  In fact, one may even say that this kind of generalization and stereotyping against foreign technical support could be subtle racism, but as you know I don't believe in that.  Liberals on the other hand do... as long as it doesn't involve the outsourcing of white jobs to other countries apparently.

Of course, Apple is no savior to American jobs.  For every iPod that they make which is proudly stamped with the "Designed in California" label is also stamped with the "Assembled in China" label.  Apple apparently is proud to declare that white collar jobs are safe in the U.S., while the blue collar ones are acceptable to outsource... right?  Of course not.  And frankly, I don't understand why outsourcing is so demonized, especially by liberals.

Most liberals strongly believe in open borders, so that thousands of Mexicans can come over the border and work for lower wages than the typical American would demand.  They don't think this is a bad thing.  They rightly talk about how that lower wage is still higher than what they would earn in Mexico, and that it's giving those immigrants a chance at a better life for them and their families.  Isn't that what happens when we outsource jobs to China or India?  Instead of all those workers having to come here for a better life, we're sending jobs to them so they can earn a better life in their own countries.  So even though they may be earning less in India or China than what the equivalent American would earn here, they're making more than what the typical worker in their own country earns.  The dividends of these jobs are already bearing fruit too, as China has a burgeoning middle class, and they're now building as many products for themselves as they build to export.  Honestly... if you're for unlimited immigration into the United States to help Mexicans, why wouldn't you also be for outsourcing to other countries like India, China or even Africa. 

My God... could you imagine how much Africa could be helped if we started building factories there to build iPods?  But no... we talk about restricting trade, increasing tariffs and adding more protectionist policies... which do nothing but keep those countries poor, and do nothing to help our bottom line.  But hey, at least you don't have to talk to a person with a funny accent when you need your computer fixed.