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I have a confession. Lately I have been fantasizing about another woman. For some reason, I can't get Carly Fiorina, the leader of technology giant Hewlett-Packard, out of my mind. My fantasy goes something like this:

Scene: The HP board room.
Time: The not-too-distant future.
Agenda Item: Profits.

The Board is calling in Carly to announce the latest plan to boost company revenues.

"Carly, you've done remarkable things . . . but we can find someone else cheaper. We have decided to outsource your job overseas. CEOs in Japan earn a fraction of your salary."

What, I wonder, would Carly say? What could she say? One would suppose such a forthright person might embrace her own demise. After all, as the current pinup girl for the overseas outsourcing movement, she is lobbying for the accelerated offshoring of American jobs.

According to a recent Commerce Department report, she's getting her wish. The department predicted that "many US companies that are not already offshoring are planning to do so in the near future."

Bashing skilled American workers appears to be the key strategy of the so-called Computer Systems Policy Project - a handful of influential business leaders like Carly who want to head off any opposition from US lawmakers who might question the wisdom of continuing to export American jobs carte blanche.

The 11th Commandment

"There is no job that is America's God-given right anymore," Carly commented in a recent Associated Press report. Not the most sensitive comment to make in light of the number of unemployed Americans suffering these days. This Marie Antoinette-approved remark makes me wonder if HP hasn't already offshored its public relations department.

Her comments have drawn some well-earned fire. "This is not a recipe for job creation in this country," fumed Marcus Courtney, president of the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers. "This is a recipe for corporate greed. They're lining up at the public trough to slash their labor costs."

Carly's group would prefer to have us believe the mindless global economy is to blame for this affront to the millions of hard-working Americans laid off in the name of improved productivity and higher corporate profits. Or that the problem is America's inability to keep up.

And whose fault is that? As Carly and her cohort in the campaign, Intel CEO Craig Barrett, tell it, America's education system is woefully lacking. They say schools act more to block budding math and science students than to foster them.

When in doubt, blame education. Yet wasn't it that same woeful education system that trained the talent that created our tech revolution - that made offshoring possible?

Blaming the school system is simply an attempt to deflect any real discussion of the long-term consequences of offshoring. It is offshoring that will hurt education, not the other way around.

Think about it. Why should American students study math and science when the companies they would work for might sell them out at the first opportunity? In other words, Carly and Craig want workers smart enough to do the job, but dumb enough not to see the handwriting on the wall.

Barrett even hints that education is so challenged in America, he can't find enough qualified workers. He insists that Intel is still making massive investments in the US, but said jobs at these new facilities require two years of college "just to walk in the door. The infrastructure and education requirement of those jobs is forever increasing."

Machiavellian Math

After years of layoffs and the decimation of Silicon Valley, does anyone really believe there is a current shortage of tech talent in the US? Can't he find people with at least two year's of education? Or is Barrett looking for people with no more than two years of college - because everyone else costs too much? And isn't that what this is all about - replacing $30-an-hour American workers with $4-an-hour foreigners?

"The problem is not a lack of highly educated workers," argues Scott Kirwin, founder of the Information Technology Professionals Association of America. "The problem is a lack of highly educated workers willing to work for the minimum wage or lower in the US. Costs are driving outsourcing, not the quality of American schools."

The truth is that many multinational companies do not have the best interests of America or its workers at heart. Yet these companies rely on American economic and military strength to make the world safe for compassionless capitalism.

That strength is being threatened by the rampant loss of employment. Yes, many jobs can and should be outsourced. Many should not. If low-wage, low-skill jobs are expendable, then those displaced American workers deserve to be retrained for better jobs at the outsourcing employer's expense. Those better jobs should not be allowed to leave our shores until all qualified American workers are employed.

At some point, the looming labor shortage will force US companies to tap foreign labor markets, and it's reasonable for Carly et al to plan for that eventuality. But we shouldn't allow such contingency plans to be implemented prematurely.

Other factors must also be considered. Sensitive jobs dealing with patient confidentiality, financial records, and advanced technology should be kept stateside.

Government work needs to stay home. Particularly here in California, especially in light of a recent report that the state has phone centers in India and Mexico handling welfare calls. How sad, when we could hire some of the welfare recipients themselves - saving public-assistance dollars and generating payroll taxes. Many states are now rethinking their offshoring policies.

Take Away Tax Breaks

Just as we limit the number of foreign workers into our country, we should strictly control the number of jobs we send to foreign workers outside our borders. Federally, action needs to be taken to stop companies from exporting high-skill jobs when America has talent to do the job at home. Companies that refuse should lose their tax breaks and other benefits of doing business in this country. There is, after all, no tax break that is corporate America's God-given right.

Let me stress I do not advocate government intrusion into every aspect of the labor market. In fact, I fully support the free and uncontrolled offshoring of CEOs. Many have earned it. As for Carly, well, rather than parroting the rhetoric of free trade, it would be refreshing to see her and her high-priced cohorts roll up their sleeves and develop some serious, sustainable working-class solutions rather than profit-driven spin.

Now there's a fantasy.