Outsourcing

Project Plan:
 * 1) The subtopic of imperialism I am responsible for is modern outsourcing by American businesses.
 * 2) This topic is important to understanding American Imperialism because it shows a unique way in which America could be an economic empire.
 * 3) Some examples of business I will use: Exxon-Mobil, Wal-Mart, (more to be added upon further research).
 * 4) Americans today should be concerned with outsourcing because America’s economy and jobs, as well as other economies across the world, are affected by this economic practice.



A World Trade Organization ([|www.wto.org]) report states that American Outsourcing of business to foreign nations is increasing, and that the "outsourcing industry" is to "exceed 1 trillion by 2006" (this is an older report) (http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/serv_e/sym_april05_e/mashayekhi_e.ppt#267,2,The_Data). Keep in mind that this industry is providing some of its huge income to the nations it is exploiting, namely third world countries such as China and India. As the report states, outsourcing is a win-win situation because the exploited nation gets "productivity, competitiveness, higher employment, faster economic growth". This, of course, makes nations dependent on this "industry" of outsourcing, as quite a portion of their productivity comes from it. The question, however, is, is this a new form of American Imperialism? The data shows that it could quite possibly be just another form of American desire for an empire.

What is outsourcing, anyways? According to the Merriam Webster Online Dictionary ([|www.m-w.com]), "outsource" means "to procure (as some goods or services needed by a business or organization) under contract with an [|outside] supplier", where in this case the outside supplier would be a foreign nation. This implies the exploitation of the labor force of a foreign nation, an aspect of imperialism seen very often in European imperialism of Africa and India.

However, this form of imperialism would be achieved purely through economic means, where nations become economically dependent on America, thus making it suck up to America. An example of this is Shanghai, China, where many privately owned American industries are allowed and can thrive despite China's communist system.

A good example of this is Wal-Mart.



Wal-Mart is the second biggest corporation in the world in terms of revenue, with a good $350 billion made each year, and is the largest retailer in the world. The reason for its extreme success mostly lies in its motto, "always low prices". The reason it can have these low prices is because in recent years, it "has begun to purchase its goods not from US factories, but from Chinese factories" (http://www.comcol.umass.edu/academics/deansbookcourse/s06_dr/Sosnovich.pdf). This way, "Wal-Mart has been able to make exorbitant amounts of money by charging US prices for goods, but paying Chinese labor costs" (Sosnovich). One result of this is that "if Wal-Mart were a country, it would rank as China's fifth largest export market, ahead of both Germany and Britain" (Sosnovich).