Hewlett-Packard chairman Carly Florina has deplored current outcry against outsourcing to countries like India, China and Russia saying more jobs should be created in the sectors where the US has and will continue to have competitive advantage.
The HP chairman, shocked critics of outsourcing recently by saying: "There is no job that is America's God-given right anymore," and on Friday, in an article in The Wall Street Journal, she explained why she said that.
Outsourcing and India: Complete Coverage
She recalled that 19 years ago, a group of leaders from American business, labour, government and academics, 'the President's Commission on Industrial Competitiveness', in a report had argued that America's ability to compete in world markets was eroding in the face of emerging industries and "low-wage workers" in Japan and other Pacific Rim nations.
Rejecting arguments for protectionism, the Commission called on public and private sectors to invest in the worldwide economy by promoting research and development in new technology, improving education and training and lowering deficits to improve the cost of capital for business.
That strategy was pursued in the '80s and '90s, creating more than 35 million new jobs and producing the longest period of economic expansion in American history, including a whole new IT sector, where jobs pay, on average, 75 per cent higher than other jobs, she said.
That commission's message, says Fiorina, seems more relevant than ever as the debate over the outsourcing of white collar tech jobs heats up in this election year.
"Once again" she says, "our leadership is being challenged -- not by Japan, but by emerging nations like India, Russia and China. What makes this challenge different is that these nations not only share rich educational heritage, but they are investing heavily in innovation and R&D to help drive the next generation of growth.
"Not only do our competitors have increasingly knowledgeable work forces, but they can compete for jobs that were once the sole province of the developed world. There is much outcry... but not much constructive action.
"Now, more than ever, other nations are developing the skills to compete for jobs that would historically have been done by Americans. But we should work to keep America what it has always been: the world's most resourceful, productive and innovative country," she adds.
Agreeing that any job lost to foreign countries is particularly painful when the US economy is failing to produce net job gains, she said, "Yet spending our time building walls around America will do nothing to help us compete for the millions of new jobs being created.
"Instead, we must focus on developing next-generation industries and next-generation talent -- in fields like biotechnology, nanotechnology and digital media distribution -- that will create long-term growth and jobs here at home, while raising all of our living standards in the process."
That, she says, is why eight member companies of the IT industry's think tank, the Computer Systems Policy Project, have invested $80 billion in R&D, capital expenditures, education and employee training in the last three years.