Outsourcing, Turned Inside Out

While most Americans today have heard about and many already been alarmed by the outsourcing of jobs overseas, some others might not be as worried; those include the employees of South Korean semiconductor company Samsung in Austin, Texas. The company just announced that it would pump another $500 into its Texas plant, adding an additional 300 jobs to its 700-people workforce. Samsung is not alone. Other foreign companies, such as the Swiss bank UBS, Germany's Infineon Technology, the Japanese semiconductor maker AMI, and the Swiss drug company Novartis, have all invested more in recent years in different parts of the US, setting up new service centers, plants, laboratories, as well as other facilities, insourcing more and more jobs into the country. These companies have demonstrated that free trade is not a one-way street when it comes to jobs; while some foreign countries may have cheaper labor, America still draws foreign investment in because of its highly educated labor force, its ability to consume, its stable legal and political environment, and its convenient infrastructure. For those in the local communities of Austin, Samsung did not just bring more work, but at the same time, according to a local lawyer, "breathed some air back into the city," creating a more comfortable and community-like environment. As the author concludes, outsourcing is unlikely to stop any time soon, but neither is insourcing. Free market will remain the "invisible hand" that directs businesses to make their own rational decisions. – YaleGlobal