Offshoring

As I think about offshoring and whether it's good or bad, I think back to my World Economy class and the principles of labor economics. Workers are always being displaced because investment goes where the job can be done cheapest - like has happened to many factory workers in the U.S.

While this is very difficult for individual workers, who must either be retrained or retire, it is a necessary part of innovation and increases GDP and the standard of living in the long run. In that macroeconomic view, offshoring is certainly a positive - although for each individual worker this is hardly comforting.