As the cost of labor increases, factories are turning to outsourcing to help save costs and turn a higher profit. Outsourcing is the practice of moving factories to foreign countries, where it is much cheaper to pay the common laborer. Within the past year, there have been shutdowns at the Maytag plant in Galesburg, IL and lay-offs at several others in the area. This new trend in cost cutting is leading to the loss of hundreds, if not thousands, of jobs at a time. In order to control this epidemic, the government needs to step in and initiate legislation to slow the loss of jobs in this country.
             Each time a company decides to move their jobs to another country, many workers are forced to rely on unemployment. Due to the fact that the majority of these blue-collar workers have no college education, have relatively little cross training, and may be increasing in age, their ability to find a new career is limited. This increase in unemployment lines is leading to a weaker overall economy. Even worse than the effects of outsourcing on the nation's economy, is the effect this trend has on the economy of small towns built around the factories.
             When a town of 500 people surrounds a large industrial operation, the entire town is crippled when that operation moves to a new location. The grocers who supply the workers are hurt when the workers have no money, the suppliers of the grocers are hurt when the grocers are not purchasing more food, and this cycle continues throughout every part of the town's economy. In some cases this is enough to cause every citizen to move to a different area, where they can find work again.
             This is a trend that needs to have some type of regulations around it. Although the government does currently make companies pay part of unemployment costs, this is not enough. There needs to be guidelines put into place that limit the circumstances surrounding a company's ability to outsource...