Will America compete?

All American politicians will say that the American worker can compete with any worker in the world. They can make a good case with regard to the skill, motivation and endurance of our labor force. But we must admit that in many cases American workers cannot compete with foreign laborers with regard to pay. American workers cannot maintain the American minimum standard of living while earning $2, $3 or $4 an hour. The difference in the cost of labor is a major reason why many jobs have gone overseas.

One way to set the stage for the return of jobs--manufacturing jobs in particular--to the United States is to arrange for workers in other countries to receive wages and benefits comparable to those of workers in the United States. That is one meaning of the phrase 'leveling the playing field'. The United States cannot easily accomplish this.

Another way to get jobs back is to have workers in the U. S. who are willing to take very much lower pay than that to which they have become accustomed.

Certain forces are propelling both of these processes, although neither of them is going to be completed soon. As their economies grow, workers in every country expect their standards of living to rise; wage earners rightly expect to share in the profits they help to generate for their employers. On the other hand, many Americans have had to lower their expectations for salaries and benefits. For some of us, 'leveling the playing field' can mean losing the jobs that paid well and, if we are lucky enough to be employed at all, taking on more work and more stress for less money.

But while we wait for old jobs to return and new jobs to be created, we might offer some groups with typically high rates of unemployment or underemployment new opportunities to help the nation and, in the process, themselves. Proposals to put these groups to work have come from various quarters, and the arguments in favor of the ideas have not always been based on how they will help the economy. Yet considering them might start new discussions on how to produce economic progress (or slow the decline) in our country.

1. Allow immigrants to work in America for less than minimum wages. Many of them do already--illegally. But bring the hard-working, otherwise law-abiding immigrants out of the shadows, and put them to work as a way for them to earn full citizenship.

2. Allow some teenagers who derive no benefit from compulsory education, but who might be better motivated by the prospect of earning money, to get into jobs. In any case, the gulf between school and the workplace of the future will not be, or should not be, as large as it is now. Workers on all rungs of the socioeconomic ladder will have to continue to advance in knowledge and skill in order to remain competitive in the marketplace. Expand work-study programs, or just allow students to reduce their hours in school and increase their hours in places of business. Experience in the 'real world' often gives people an understanding of how important education is. Let students get in and out of the workplace, and let workers get in and out of school more easily.

3. Give some prisoners a chance to work in manufacturing. America has millions of people in jail or on parole or on probation. We should give at least a portion of them chances to become more productive. Prisoners who volunteer their services could provide some companies very cheap or even free labor. In the bargain, inmates could learn some skills, feel more self-respect and, perhaps, reduce the term of their incarceration.

We might also consider exceptions to the minimum wage laws, if those laws are not repealed altogether. Some companies could afford to hire workers or more of them if the marketplace, rather than the government, determined the appropriate rate of pay. And some people would be willing to take jobs that pay very little rather than to remain unemployed.

Objections to these proposals abound. Some critics find aspects of these ideas abhorrent. To be sure, there are scores of legitimate concerns, among them the imperatives:

1. To avoid relegating immigrants to perpetual second-class citizenship.

2. To recognize the possible dangers of giving prisoners and parolees too much freedom, and to manage prisoners and parolees so that they do not threaten or harm the individuals with whom they might work.

3. To avoid the exploitation of all people, especially the disadvantaged and those on whom the state places special restrictions, like immigrants or prison inmates, or for whom the state provides special protections, like the young or the impoverished.

Much of American history has been a struggle to win rights for every group of our citizens. As we provide some people new opportunities to serve their nation, we must ensure that their service to the nation will, at the same time, yield improvements in the quality of their lives. Even as we want to retain our liberties and legal protection, we do not want to deny anyone else in our country the basic civil rights and guarantees for justice that most of us enjoy.

But at this time the challenges for America demand that we consider some new ideas. Even as we explore conventional avenues to progress, we should probably also consider some unconventional proposals. Living and doing business as usual may have helped to put us in the mess in which we find ourselves. Far too many of our old ideas no longer work.