Mitt Doesn't Get It

I know this story is a couple weeks old, but I've been busy.

(via Think Progress)

Romney Doesn’t Dispute He Helped Send Jobs Overseas, Tells Press To Call It ‘Offshoring’ Not ‘Outsourcing’

Seriously? Do you really not get that that is so much worse?

"Outsourcing" is not necessarily a bad thing (although it usually is). If you are, say, a clothing store, and you need a computer program to track inventory, it makes sense to "outsource" that job to a company that creates software rather than trying to hire your own computer programmers who will be unnecessary once the program is written, or hoping that one of your sales staff might have a knack for computers. Outsourcing a job that is not in your company's wheelhouse makes perfect sense.

"Offshoring" is always always always a bad thing. Sending jobs to a some low-wage third-world company so you can pay slave wages to children working in prison-level conditions rather than hiring Americans who might expect a halfway-decent wage? Always bad. There's no situation in which you can justify that.

 

See? It's just "offshoring!" What's the problem?

And yes, "outsourcing" is often done for nefarious reasons, like shifting work to a non-union shop, but it doesn't always have to be villainous.

 

Manslaughter?  Your honor, my client has merely committed First Degree Murder!

“This is a fundamentally flawed story that does not differentiate between domestic outsourcing versus offshoring nor versus work done overseas to support U.S. exports. Mitt Romney spent 25 years in the real world economy so he understands why jobs come and they go,” Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said. 

Of course he understands why they go. They go because you send them to China.