Offshoring is not just pro-con debate

Alan Greenspan's honesty is tough for politicians to swallow in an election year, but he is saying things that the nation and political candidates need to hear. Not only has he uttered a truth that most people know but don't want publicly to accept - Social Security and Medicare are functionally insolvent without a cut in benefits - but he has warned that the dangers of "creeping protectionism" springing from the high profile debate over offshoring US jobs may seriously undermine American interests.

Blaming foreigners for America's homegrown economic shortcomings not only is irresponsible, it assures that America's economic circumstances continue to erode.

The US should be building a consensus for investing in resources - such as higher education and high tech ingenuity - that will ensure domestic jobs of the future.

Many previously pro-global Republicans and Democrats have turned the offshoring debate into a shallow choice that has no bearing on reality. While opposing offshoring, none of them has offered a prescription for how to stem the flow of US jobs to cheaper, overseas labor markets.

Sen. John Kerry has called for a "commission" to study the problem and wants firms that are relocating to report to local, state, and federal authorities about their plans. This is bureaucratic duplicity masquerading as policy - it won't keep any jobs in America.

George W. Bush and Co., however, have been even more negligent during their time at the helm, governing economic policy by short-term opportunism (such as unsustainable promises to steel producers) and manic "tax cut mantras" that have undermined fiscal confidence.

We need smarter policy and a road map that returns the nation to the axiom that investing in people and technology has enormous national payoffs. A twofold strategy focusing on new investments in industrial capital and human capital is long overdue. To upgrade industrial capital, we must pursue sustained research and development into leading-edge technologies. To upgrade our human capital, continuous investments must be made in higher education, making sure that the next generation of Americans has the job skills and the academic agility to take full advantage of tomorrow's most advanced technologies.

Since Washington has drained the Treasury and has thus undermined its already too-modest civilian research and development programs, state-level and regional investment must play a greater role to counterbalance the federal government's neglect.

Consider current efforts in two states in the industrial heartland - New York and Ohio - that have been struggling to create jobs. The contrast between the two efforts is explained not by party label - since both states' pro-growth plans have been offered by pragmatic Republican governors - but by political willpower.

New York has already invested $620 million of a planned $1 billion to create an imaginative network of research and development incubators - dubbed "the Empire State High-Tech Corridor."

It would create "centers of excellence" in leading-edge technologies near researchers at campuses of the state's extensive university system and with the existing knowledge base clustered around signature private-sector industries.

Page: 1 | 2