DKSuddeth
Senior Member
First off, my apologies for posting the whole article. It comes from a news site that requires registering and in order to avoid that issue I just posted the whole thing. My personal opinion is that this moron doesn't have the first clue about whats going on and how to deal with it, but thats just me.
Outsourcing of Confidence
If foreign competition scares us, we are in trouble
By RUBEN NAVARRETTE / The Dallas Morning News
The myth endures that the outsourcing of American jobs is tantamount to treason. But what's really unpatriotic is the movement to stop it.
You see it everywhere. You've got John Kerry calling corporate executives who ship jobs overseas "Benedict Arnolds" in a bid to get organized labor excited about his candidacy. You've got CNN's Lou Dobbs bemoaning the "Exporting of America" by listing the names of American companies that send jobs offshore, thus branding them with the 21st century's version of the Scarlet Letter a big "O" for outsourcer.
But as I travel the country, I've decided that what makes me angriest about this debate is that it offends my sensibilities as an American. The line advanced by the panderers and the protectionists goes against everything I ever was taught and believe about how Americans never run from a fight, never duck the competition, never cower in fear and never, ever, surrender.
Understand this much. That's the extent of what the protectionists are peddling surrender. By campaigning so vigorously, and so loudly, to try to prevent companies from sending jobs abroad in a changing economy, they're advertising the fact that they have absolutely no confidence in the ability of Americans to adapt to those changes. Instead of pumping up their countrymen and telling us that we can and will succeed on the global stage, they'd rather convince Americans that we don't have a prayer of competing and shouldn't even bother trying. The way the protectionists see the world, Americans always are going to be undercut by low-wage workers in the Third World, and there is absolutely nothing we can do about it.
How depressing. And how tragic that the line is catching on. Case in point: A college student tells an interviewer for the Lou Dobbs program that he has decided to give up his pursuit of a career as a computer programmer because he is afraid the job he is going after is headed to India, where someone will do it for a fraction of the salary he believes he deserves. Rather than lower his asking price, acquire more schooling or take on a new set of computer skills that might allow him to compete head to head with Indian workers, the young man has opted to throw in the towel and abandon his dream of becoming a programmer. Instead, he has decided to become gasp! a lawyer.
Let's think about our young friend. Here he is changing careers at about the age that one is able to buy a drink in a bar. He could have been a bit more honest and acknowledged that at least part of his reluctance in competing with people from countries such as India or China isn't just that they work for less. It could be that they work harder. Or study more. In the marketplace, they come to play, and they take no prisoners. Who could blame the young man for not wanting to compete for jobs with people like that? But he prefers to couch the argument in terms of foreign competitors being willing to work for less than Americans demand.
Say, this kid might make a good lawyer after all.
On a recent trip to New Delhi, Secretary of State Colin Powell offered reassurances that the Bush administration wouldn't try to halt the outsourcing of high-tech jobs to India.
Great. But what the administration needs to do next is to begin a national campaign, perhaps run through the Labor Department, to convince Americans they have nothing to be afraid of and that they can compete with Indians or anyone else if they only will tap into the things that Americans have and always have had in abundance: Ingenuity. Confidence. Fearlessness. Optimism. The belief that any product can be improved upon and that the next great idea is just around the corner.
Americans used to have all of that in their personal arsenals. If they no longer do, then, well, the fact that jobs are going overseas is the least of our worries.
Outsourcing of Confidence
If foreign competition scares us, we are in trouble
By RUBEN NAVARRETTE / The Dallas Morning News
The myth endures that the outsourcing of American jobs is tantamount to treason. But what's really unpatriotic is the movement to stop it.
You see it everywhere. You've got John Kerry calling corporate executives who ship jobs overseas "Benedict Arnolds" in a bid to get organized labor excited about his candidacy. You've got CNN's Lou Dobbs bemoaning the "Exporting of America" by listing the names of American companies that send jobs offshore, thus branding them with the 21st century's version of the Scarlet Letter a big "O" for outsourcer.
But as I travel the country, I've decided that what makes me angriest about this debate is that it offends my sensibilities as an American. The line advanced by the panderers and the protectionists goes against everything I ever was taught and believe about how Americans never run from a fight, never duck the competition, never cower in fear and never, ever, surrender.
Understand this much. That's the extent of what the protectionists are peddling surrender. By campaigning so vigorously, and so loudly, to try to prevent companies from sending jobs abroad in a changing economy, they're advertising the fact that they have absolutely no confidence in the ability of Americans to adapt to those changes. Instead of pumping up their countrymen and telling us that we can and will succeed on the global stage, they'd rather convince Americans that we don't have a prayer of competing and shouldn't even bother trying. The way the protectionists see the world, Americans always are going to be undercut by low-wage workers in the Third World, and there is absolutely nothing we can do about it.
How depressing. And how tragic that the line is catching on. Case in point: A college student tells an interviewer for the Lou Dobbs program that he has decided to give up his pursuit of a career as a computer programmer because he is afraid the job he is going after is headed to India, where someone will do it for a fraction of the salary he believes he deserves. Rather than lower his asking price, acquire more schooling or take on a new set of computer skills that might allow him to compete head to head with Indian workers, the young man has opted to throw in the towel and abandon his dream of becoming a programmer. Instead, he has decided to become gasp! a lawyer.
Let's think about our young friend. Here he is changing careers at about the age that one is able to buy a drink in a bar. He could have been a bit more honest and acknowledged that at least part of his reluctance in competing with people from countries such as India or China isn't just that they work for less. It could be that they work harder. Or study more. In the marketplace, they come to play, and they take no prisoners. Who could blame the young man for not wanting to compete for jobs with people like that? But he prefers to couch the argument in terms of foreign competitors being willing to work for less than Americans demand.
Say, this kid might make a good lawyer after all.
On a recent trip to New Delhi, Secretary of State Colin Powell offered reassurances that the Bush administration wouldn't try to halt the outsourcing of high-tech jobs to India.
Great. But what the administration needs to do next is to begin a national campaign, perhaps run through the Labor Department, to convince Americans they have nothing to be afraid of and that they can compete with Indians or anyone else if they only will tap into the things that Americans have and always have had in abundance: Ingenuity. Confidence. Fearlessness. Optimism. The belief that any product can be improved upon and that the next great idea is just around the corner.
Americans used to have all of that in their personal arsenals. If they no longer do, then, well, the fact that jobs are going overseas is the least of our worries.
