Ruben Navarrette Jr. / Syndicated columnist
Job protectionists are peddling surrender

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DALLAS — 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, the likely Democratic presidential nominee, 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 constantly 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 was ever 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 these 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 are always going to be undercut by low-wage workers in Third World countries willing to do these jobs for a fraction of what U.S. workers would demand, and there is absolutely nothing we can do about it.

No Pitts Leonard Pitts Jr.'s column will return next week.

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, or 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 legally buy a drink in a bar. He could have been a bit more honest and acknowledged that at least part of his hesitance 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?

On a recent trip to New Delhi, Secretary of State Colin Powell offered reassurances that the Bush administration would not 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, that they can compete with Indians or anyone else if they will only tap into the things that Americans have and have always had in abundance: Ingenuity. Confidence. Fearlessness. Optimism. The belief that any product can be improved upon and the next great idea is just around the corner.

Americans used to have all 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.

Ruben Navarrette's column appears regularly on editorial pages of The Times. His e-mail address is rnavarrette@dallasnews.com

Copyright 2004, The Dallas Morning News