Embracing today's global economy

There is no room for "Ugly Americans" on the global stage. Our world ought not begin and end at the edges of our cities or the boundaries of our shores. We must expand our thinking as well as our travels. We must take off our parochial blinders and become students of the world.

If we take a hard look at what is going on around us, there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic. Yet, there are some warning signs as well. The demand for skilled labor is up--and the supply is down. The number of U.S. graduates in math, science, and engineering is not growing fast enough to meet the expected need. In India, the number of college graduates with those degrees is five to 10 times greater than in the U.S.

In 2002, 60,000 engineers graduated from U.S. colleges. China and India graduated five times that many. Their Asian neighbors, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore, share a zeal for education, and they have the math scores to prove it. In a recent international assessment of eighth-graders, Singapore scored best in the world and joined five Asian neighbors in beating the U.S. American kids came in 19th.

"We absolutely must strengthen our talent pool." stresses Charlene Barshefsky, an Asian expert who served as U.S. Trade Representative under Pres. Bill Clinton. Otherwise, she warns, "We will lose our competitive edge within a generation." She favors more emphasis on math and science starting in the third grade.

In addition to strengthening our talent pool, we need to broaden it. Severe labor shortages are likely to return within 10 years, especially if our economy continues to get stronger. Certain industries, such as health care, construction, and defense/security, already are suffering.

The retirement factor

When the baby boomers start retiring, there will be 168,000,000 jobs in our economy, but only 158,000,000 people in the labor market to fill them. How will we close the shortfall? Three things will help. First, there is the continuing flux of immigrants that has been, and will continue to be. the essential engine of our economy. Immigrants serve as flexible, low-wage workers in industries undergoing transition. One myth states that immigrant and unskilled labor ate one and the same. That is not true. There is a deep and wide pool of highly-educated and -skilled people who have emigrated--or will--to the U.S. They want to put their creativity and capabilities to work in what they see as "the land of opportunity."

Rather than displacing native workers in any significant way, studies show that a steady flow of immigrant labor actually helps create jobs. For example, according to one study, if no Mexican immigration to Los Angeles County had occurred between 1970-80, 53,000 production jobs, 12,000 high-paying nonproduction slots, and 25,000 positions in related industries would have been lost.

In a service-based global economy, skilled labor becomes more and more important. Because of technology, this labor can be linked across the world into one global labor force. This capability makes possible a startling new phenomenon--immigrants who never leave home. These "stay-at-home" immigrants live abroad but support U.S. companies. The rapid decline in the cost of technology and telecommunication and rise in computing power mean that foreign nationals can work for Dell Computer from their homes in Delhi.