Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations

Americans have long stood beside our big global firms, which have been key contributors to our prosperity. Today, however, an aging workforce at home, a challenged economy and the lure of foreign markets are pushing our biggest, richest companies to recreate their American miracle abroad and to weaken their commitment at home.

The American economy is home to 139 of the world's 500 largest multinational firms, nearly twice the number of runner-up Japan. The big American multinational firms employ about 22 million of the nearly 153 million people in the U.S. workforce; that is one out every seven workers in the U.S. A 2009 study by economist Matthew Slaughter showed that the average yearly salary for employees at multinationals was $62,784 in 2006, more than $12,000 above the average wage in the private sector overall. The higher pay, Slaughter reasons, results from the better job big multinationals do at making their employees contribute more to the bottom line.

Some sobering news about the role of multinationals emerged last month. The Commerce Department reports that since 2000, U.S. multinationals have shed 2.9 million workers at home but picked up 2.4 million workers overseas. And that is to say nothing of the millions more who work for the foreign companies that now make many of the products and components sold by multinationals.

Cheap labor did it

Executives quoted about the trend are quick to say that the movement of jobs is not about undercutting U.S. wages. Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of GE and head of the White House Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, said that "the era of globalization around cheap labor is over. � Today we go to Brazil, we go to China, � India, because that's where the customers are." Of course, many of those customers Immelt refers to are multinationals that did move factories abroad for cheap labor and which need GE there to supply them.

The era of globalization around cheap labor is still upon us. That is why we could see the trade deficit with China near $300 billion this year. Cheap labor and the gutting of American jobs are inseparable from the economic miracles multinationals now chase. It's tempting to lay blame on the companies, but the dynamic is too large for that. Even workers in America have a version of this game. Last year, pension plans, retirement accounts and personal savings helped pour $908 billion into the emerging markets recreating the formerly American jobs. Investors without an emerging market strategy rightly fear they will fall behind in the long run.

One of the big reasons American jobs are down and foreign hiring is up is that the U.S. workforce is older than the workforce available abroad. Older workers, who carry a lifetime of raises and benefits hikes, are the most expensive to keep. At multinationals where wages and benefits tend to be richer, older workers can look especially expensive. As a result, they are especially vulnerable. Advanced countries with aging workforces have huge social costs that demand higher taxes and higher public debt, which multinationals get jumpy about.

Around the same time that the Commerce Department released its data on job loss, several multinationals announced aggressive early retirement plans. It's part of a long trend. Cisco Systems announced a program to push employees older than 50 into early retirement, which a company spokeswoman said would "control costs and align investment dollars." Since 2005, Cisco has added twice as many jobs abroad as in the U.S. The unemployment rate for older workers, about 7%, is near its record highs, and like all unemployment stats, it does not include the long-term unemployed. Older Americans in that category have doubled since 2007.

What's more, older people seeking work must search longer than any other age group. It takes them an average of nine months to find anything, and then it is likely for vastly reduced wages.

Enter a Chinese or Vietnamese workplace, and it is hard to find anyone older than 30. Youth and the freedom from age-related wages and benefits are among the factors that drive the movement of work and foreign investment to the new markets. That makes older workers in the industrial world increasingly vulnerable to globalization.

What America can do

One way to stem the tide is to give big business more of what it wants: lower taxes, visas for foreign workers, less regulation and the rest of the usual corporate wish list. But this won't end it.

To make America the first choice for our global employers, we must focus not directly on their needs, but on what our citizens need to be the most valuable workers in the world, and our communities need to be the best places to do business. How about stronger incentives that push adults to invest in themselves and keep their skills cutting edge? Cities and regions need to focus on their unique assets. Local natural, intellectual and social resources that cannot be easily found elsewhere can be bulwarks against the global forces that sweep jobs away and devalue older workers. When we, as individuals and citizens, are at our peak, then the ever-flatter world of multinationals will not flatten our economy or us.

Ted C. Fishman is the author of the new book Shock of Gray. He also is a member of USA TODAY's Board of Contributors.