Outsourcing or Out of Your Mind?

sacbee.com -- Opinion -- Daniel Weintruab: Outsourcing is good for America - and California
Below is the text of an email I sent to Daniel Weintruab, columnist for the Sacramento Bee:
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Well, first of all, I must say that it is a rather brave and unique stance for a columnist for the Sacramento Bee, a paper so often derided for its "glaring liberal bias", to not only support but to call for more outsourcing. And while I appreciate your global view I think you are missing an important caveat that must be considered with every outsourcing proposal: accountability.

I work in the information technology field where outsourcing is a major topic of concern. Furthermore, I work for the State so your piece really piqued my interest. Still, I have to grant that there are some tasks can be successfully outsourced. I'm thinking primarily of help desk phone assistance. As long as the person on the other end of the line knows their subject and can communicate effectively, it does not matter where on the globe that person is. Unfortunately, it has been my experience that those first two hurdles are rarely cleared. But what is lost with poor help desk assistance? Time? Customer satisfaction and loyalty? And, ultimately the customer usually has other resources available online or at their local bookstore.

But what about manufacturing? We saw many mills and jobs drift over our borders due to NAFTA. Economically, I think the jury may still be out on this one, but from a jobs perspective it does not look good. But what of the products made? Has the quality been maintained? Sometimes. Perhaps even often. And when the quality has slipped, who pays the price? Who is accountable? If the company is US-based, there is usually some recourse. However, often the money saved in using third world labor far offsets the complaints of a customer base that has learned to simply shrug and accept what is put before them.

Now let's examine your proposal: outsourcing the DMV (and, I imagine, other governmental functions?). The government, by force of law, requires that we relinquish some very precious confidential information. There must be a bond of the utmost trust between us. What happens when that trust is betrayed? Who is accountable when information that opens wide the door to our entire lives becomes a commodity traded out of identity mills in Indonesia? And what good is accountability once our lives have been stolen?

No, the bond between a government and its citizens is far too intimate to relinquish our secrets to a third party.