John Stossel:Outsourcing economically benefits the U.S

John Stossel:
Outsourcing economically benefits the U.S.
By JOHN STOSSEL
Guest Commentary

SHOW US the jobs!" chanted union workers at an AFL-CIO rally protesting outsourcing. They were angry that "their" jobs were going overseas.

So let's go look for the jobs that have disappeared.

ABC News asked the AFL-CIO for its best examples of workers who lost jobs because of outsourcing. The first people they told us to talk to were Shirley and Ronnie Bernard.

The Bernards used to work at a Levi's factory in Knoxville, Tenn. But then, Levi's sent jobs to Mexico and closed that plant. It "tore a lot of people up because some people have been here since they were 16 years of age, and they've been here like 20-something-odd years," one woman told the local ABC affiliate. People "were in tears," said a man.

But what about all those jobs going overseas? Consider 50 people in India doing programming that people in California used to do. They work for a company called Collabnet, run by Bill Portelli. The salary for each Indian programmer costs him less than half as much as an American's salary for the same job.

Yet the Americans who work for his company didn't lose their jobs, because outsourcing saved Collabnet so much money, Portelli could expand in America. "Basically, I've created jobs in America," says Portelli.

"I've built better products, created jobs, been able to raise salaries." Had he not been able to hire Indians, he says, he might even have gone out of business.

"Then he probably should be out of business," said Lou Dobbs, "because the fact of the matter is, either his business would be successful with American workers, or it's not going to be successful at all."

What?! The fact of the matter is, the most successful companies are outsourcers. And a Dartmouth study found that outsourcers are the bigger job creators.