Daily Inspiration Quote by Alphonso Jackson

Outsourcing, in Alphonso Jackson's framing, isn’t a dirty word; it’s a tidy syllogism dressed up as common sense. The line works because it tries to drain the moral charge out of a politically radioactive practice and recast it as managerial hygiene: if it’s “better” outside, then choosing the outside is just rational stewardship. That “simply says” is doing heavy lifting. It signals impatience with debate, as if objections are sentimental or parochial rather than substantive.

The subtext is an argument about legitimacy. Jackson, a public servant speaking in an era when “government should run like a business” became a bipartisan mantra, is smoothing the path for privatization by shifting the standard from public obligation to performance metrics. “Better” sounds neutral, but it’s elastic: better for whom, measured how, and over what time horizon? Cost savings, speed, and flexibility can all qualify as “better” while pushing risks - accountability gaps, weakened labor standards, loss of institutional capacity - into places the balance sheet doesn’t easily capture.

Context matters because outsourcing debates are never just about efficiency; they’re about power. When work migrates “outside,” oversight often thins, and democratic visibility can fade behind contracts, subcontractors, and proprietary systems. Jackson’s sentence is a rhetorical permission slip: it invites policymakers to treat public functions as interchangeable modules. The quiet provocation is that “inside” - the state itself - becomes just another vendor, forced to justify its existence in the language of competition rather than civic purpose.