Economies don't eat

Instapundit approvingly cites this NCPA brief arguing, as the title says, that "Outsourcing [is] Good for U.S. and World Economies." A couple of comments. First, the brief seems split-minded over about white-collar outsourcing, making the argument that companies only outsource no-skill jobs, then turning around and talking about improved employment at Cisco.

Second, economies don't eat. Though NCPA suggests that workers whose jobs are outsourced are "often" retrained for better jobs within the same company, it is unclear how often this happens. Further, though white-collar outsourcing is a hot topic now, I imagine that the majority of jobs outsourced overall are still blue-collar, and in most cases those employees are less likely to wind up in higher paying jobs.

My feeling is that when people talk about how globalization is good, they generally mean "good for consumers." But people don't just consume. They also have to work, and the loss of non-service sector employment is bad for workers.

Everyday urbanism at night

(addendum to this post)

It occurs to me that everyday urbanism might imply something else for planners. I'm a bit less clear on this, because it's essentially been something I've believed in for awhile, so I might just be seeing agreement everywhere.

If everyday urbanism is interested in clashing ideas communicated through streetscapes and buildings, and is trying to escape streetscapes that speak in a single voice, then we ought to stop doing large-scale developments, and should focus on having people build piecemeal, a building or block or two at a time.

Practically, this means, I think, getting rid of the current PUD-crutch and completely revamping zoning ordinances to allow for flexibility, density and mixing of uses.