An essay on immigration and outsourcing - pros & cons.

1. Immigration and Outsourcing
By Kelly Kokaisel
Immigration and outsourcing are topics that many people are passionate about. It effects ones quality
of life directly as well as indirectly. Although some people may feel the effects of outsourcing or
immigration negatively in the short term, economics shows us that open markets create an environment
in which in economies can find their natural balance and self regulate.
The permaculture principle, Apply Self-Regulation and Accept Feedback, reinforces the idea that in a
natural environment, a system that uses feedback will obtain a yield (positive feedback) and limit or
discourage inappropriate growth or behavior (negative feedback). A open market system that accepts
feedback creates a cycle that promotes human capital, which makes us more productive and efficient,
which benefits everyone in the long run.
American companies benefit from outsourcing jobs, services, and products in many ways. Outsourcing
work to countries where production may be less costly allows the company to reinvest money into
better products and services or to provide the consumer with a more affordable product or service. An
open market with fair trade practices provides American workers to obtain a better quality of life
through safer, more effective products and services. Economic principles teach us that human capital is
not a zero sum formula; occupying one job does not take away a job from another...it creates more
human capital, which creates more jobs, which makes everyone better off.
In a fair trade open market, outsourcing also benefits the country from which one is aquiring human
capital. While reducing a companies costs it is often still possible to pay the workers a fair wage that
they might not otherwise able to earn. This increase in income stimulates their economy and allows
them to participate more in the open market, which benefits everyone as well. Those who wish to
participate in traditional cultural production may choose to do so and also benefit from a larger market
and increased income. Competition may force a worker out of a field but it also provides a new
opportunity. Economies and markets are alive and ever-changing, and people need to be adaptable in
order to succeed.
In order for the fair trade open market to succeed, governments need to be small enough to be self
sustainable, yet large enough to provide adequate resources for its community. This can be achieved
through a united and open system which would naturally encourage healthy governments.
Just as in the farm analogy where an agronomist comes to the farm town and makes a machine that
increases their yield, which provides the opportunity to bring in another worker with special skills and
human capital, improving the quality of life for everyone on the farm in the long run, outsourcing and
immigrating skilled workers improves the human capital of the workforce which can be more productive
and efficient, which allows them in the long run to provide the resources and opportunities to increase
the human capital in unskilled workers, reaching an equilibrium in which everyone is better off.

2. Systems are cyclical; they expand and collapse. An economy will expand until it reaches a point where it
is no longer sustainable and will self regulate and collapse. We are currently on a bubble of expanse,
economically and environmentally, and will undoubtedly collapse to some degree to maintain balance.
We must work together now to develop enough human capital to buffer extreme changes in the future.
This is how we will be fit and survive.