Outsourcing has helped to define the economy of our world today. There is no way we can stop the clock and expect to go back to a world where the measure of competition was the guy across the street. Global trade is a reality.
However, globalism and nationalism are not necessarily good bedfellows. That which benefits one nation's trade may harm another's. In the U.S., that has taken the form of a steadily declining manufacturing base. On paper, this erosion owes to a simple shift to cheaper suppliers. At ground level, however, it also means the deterioration of communities that once were sustained by their manufacturing base and since have experienced a wholesale loss of jobs and their associated benefits. Specifically, this can mean letting our older industrial cities like Flint, MI; Erie, PA; Gary, IN; and Paterson, NJ, stagnate or rot.
This decline may not be the direct result of foreign outsourcing. Other forces have been at work. For instance, Paterson's once famous silk-producing industry died as a consequence of many forces including a change in market demand. Other declines have been the result of leapfrog technology by foreign competitors, as was true of the U.S. steel industry decades ago. Regardless of the forces behind it, though, the results of the decline are most often an economic downturn for the area and economic chaos for individuals who do not have the option of a creative response -- changing jobs or industries, for instance, or changing their location.
The word "insourcing," as it is now generally being used, refers to foreign companies setting up businesses in the U.S. This may benefit both the foreign nation and the U.S. worker, plus the local or state tax base. It is a moot point whether it benefits our nation as a whole, however, since profits for the most part leave the country. We may build BMWs, but Germans and BMW own the ideas, the system, and the profits.
But can there be a different interpretation of insourcing? Can we find a way to make it a means of rejuvenating our industrial base by identifying market needs and rebuilding industries in those areas so badly damaged over the last 30 years? Can collaboration among national, state, and local authorities be fused with private interests? Can the United States actually act as a unified business for the greater good of the nation and its citizens?
We can't keep destroying major sections of our country and expect to find virgin soil and untapped resources out there. This is not the time of the gold rush, the Panhandle rush, or the move through the once Great Plains. This is now. There is no uncharted land left.
Can we afford to throw away not only people but their communities as well?
When a community is destroyed its people are wounded. A community is like a part of a body. If we lose too many parts the body ceases to function. We have lost as much as we can afford to lose. It is time to consider other options for redress of our national decline. What we may lose is our nation. What we have to gain is a renewed sense that we are a country of compassionate citizens who care for the commonwealth.