The Debate Caused by Outsourcing Outsourcing has become a significant issue that has recently come to the forefront of political agendas. Supporters of offshore outsourcing point to its resulting increase in efficiency and the increased savings as evidence of its value. Estimates place net cost savings for U.S. Companies that outsource at 30 to 50%. Such savings would preferably result in allocating these cost savings to other more efficient parts of the company and possibly contribute to its overall profitability. Alan C. Shapiro argues that the U.S. benefits from the cycle of outsourcing by receiving more jobs from foreign private services than are sent offshore. In 2006, the result was a $63 billion trade surplus for private services which the U.S. benefited from. (Shapiro, 17) Most opponents of offshore outsourcing point to a negative consequence of lost white collar jobs. The U.S. economy loses about 15 million jobs per year. Normally those jobs are replaced by even more new ones at a rate of 17 million per year. (Shapiro, 18) With our recent global crisis new job creation has decreased, bringing this topic more attention. Much of the trepidation about outsourcing comes from fear of losing health insurance and not receiving enough unemployment benefits. Many remedies have been suggested by respected figures in the Economic sector. The U.S. Government could increase unemployment benefits and try to lessen the blow to the unemployed by helping with health care costs. Erica L. Groshen, an assistant vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York suggests that while all these steps will be expensive, they will likely be less costly than limiting trade (Otterman). Award winning author Thomas Friedman suggests in his book The World is Flat, that another remedy is improving the U.S. education system to better prepare workers for highly skilled, 21st-century jobs.  The result could be a more adaptable and qualified U.S. workforce. Finally, some analysts say in addition, a greater share of the costs of insuring workers should be taken on by the companies that benefit from offshoring in the first place. Works Cited Friedman, Thomas L. The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century (2006, 2nd edition) Otterman, Sharon, Council on Foreign Relations, “Outsourcing Jobs” (2004, Feb 20) http://www.cfr.org/publication/7749/trade.html Shapiro, Alan C., and Sarin, Atulya Foundations of Multinational Financial Management, “The Debate Over Outsourcing” (2009) pgs.17-18