Part 1

Part of a business strategy that you are considering involves the reduction of labor and material costs. Your chief financial officer (CFO) suggested doing some of the manufacturing overseas. The concerns in moving some of your manufacturing offshore may be that you achieve lower costs of production but lose quality control (a trademark of your brand) and perhaps even reduce morale in your company by laying off those workers whose jobs will be performed overseas. These are serious issues. You asked your CFO to outline the benefits and disadvantages of doing so in regard to your relationship with your employees, balance sheet, quality, and service.

Explain 3 additional benefits and 3 additional disadvantages that would concern you and the economy, and answer the following questions in 500–750 words:

• What would you conclude?
• Is there something else you can do with those employees that you would be laying off?

Part 2

In your quest to understand how your employees would be affected by any of the decisions that you are going to make, you also realize that your labor costs may not be the real source of your balance sheet problems. After all, you are manufacturing in a region that attracts many immigrants, which because of an increase in the labor pool actually keeps your labor costs relatively low. This sparked the question about why Americans continue to be concerned about immigration policy and what the debate is about. You want to know more.

Explain the following in 500–750words:

• What effect does immigration have on wages?
• Does immigration help or hurt a country’s output?
• What are the advantages of immigration?
• What are the disadvantages of immigration?
• What are some of the current political and economic issues regarding immigration?
• What is the debate surrounding the Dream Act?