Critique "Outsourcing in America"

The post “outsourcing in America” discusses a small town near San Francisco and how their local government has been outsourcing the labor done by the city, including its public works, engineering, lawyers, building inspection, and code enforcement. The author of this post feels “as if once again people are looking to take the easy way out instead of making the proper changes to the way the actual city is ran. It also shows no loyalty at all to the citizens of the town and could lead to a mass exodus because people do not agree with the actions of the city. Although they save money by just contracting out the jobs, they also save money by not having to pay as many pensions. This kind of behavior is unethical and is not the way to treat employees and citizens of the city.” I agree with several things the author has said. The first thing I agree with is the fact that this idea of outsourcing the public sector jobs of this city is probably not the best way of treating your citizens that work those jobs. You would somewhat expect the city to employ its own citizens for city jobs. The other thing I agree with is the fact that by instituting this strategy the city has an opportunity to save money to help reduce their deficit, in the short run. By outsourcing these jobs in their community, the city may be saving money in salaries and pensions but a lot of money will be lost from lack of consumption, taxes collected on that consumption as well as the unemployment benefits that will need to be paid out to the people who have become unemployed due to the outsourcing of these jobs. The one thing I disagree with is that this strategy could lead to mass exodus. With the resulting unemployment, current economic climate and state of the housing market, it would most likely be very difficult for a large portion of the city’s population to leave.