There’s something to that. While the subprime mortgage mess involved a huge ethical breakdown on Wall Street, it coincided with an education breakdown on Main Street — precisely when technology and open borders were enabling so many more people to compete with Americans for middle-class jobs
A year ago, it all exploded. Now that we are picking up the pieces, we need to understand that it is not only our financial system that needs a reboot and an upgrade, but also our public school system. Otherwise, the jobless recovery won’t be just a passing phase, but our future.
“Our education failure is the largest contributing factor to the decline of the American worker’s global competitiveness, particularly at the middle and bottom ranges,” argued Martin, a former global executive with PepsiCo and Kraft Europe and now an international investor. “This loss of competitiveness has weakened the American worker’s production of wealth, precisely when technology brought global competition much closer to home. So over a decade, American workers have maintained their standard of living by borrowing and overconsuming vis-à-vis their real income. When the Great Recession wiped out all the credit and asset bubbles that made that overconsumption possible, it left too many American workers not only deeper in debt than ever, but out of a job and lacking the skills to compete globally.”
This problem will be reversed only when the decline in worker competitiveness reverses — when we create enough new jobs and educated workers that are worth, say, $40-an-hour compared with the global alternatives. If we don’t, there’s no telling how “jobless” this recovery will be.A year ago, it all exploded. Now that we are picking up the pieces, we need to understand that it is not only our financial system that needs a reboot and an upgrade, but also our public school system. Otherwise, the jobless recovery won’t be just a passing phase, but our future.
“Our education failure is the largest contributing factor to the decline of the American worker’s global competitiveness, particularly at the middle and bottom ranges,” argued Martin, a former global executive with PepsiCo and Kraft Europe and now an international investor. “This loss of competitiveness has weakened the American worker’s production of wealth, precisely when technology brought global competition much closer to home. So over a decade, American workers have maintained their standard of living by borrowing and overconsuming vis-à-vis their real income. When the Great Recession wiped out all the credit and asset bubbles that made that overconsumption possible, it left too many American workers not only deeper in debt than ever, but out of a job and lacking the skills to compete globally.”
This problem will be reversed only when the decline in worker competitiveness reverses — when we create enough new jobs and educated workers that are worth, say, $40-an-hour compared with the global alternatives. If we don’t, there’s no telling how “jobless” this recovery will be.more
I would take issue with Todd Martin's recollection of the economic crisis versus education argument. In my view, the average american worker already embodied all the shortcomings that Martin outlines, even when economies were booming, long ago in fact before the crisis hit. It actually takes a long time for the effects of a " change in the education system" to be observable in society, and this would apply for both possitive and negative changes. In my view " reversal of the problem" - as Todd Martin puts it,- and as problem I refer to the educational crisis, not the economy crisis- would begin to happen only when new and fresh blood will be brought into the education system and the ranks of teachers throughout our primary schools and further up. I am talking in terms of fresh, dynamic, forward thinking professional minds that would be our new generation of teachers with t o p s a l a r i e s, so that teaching as a profession would begin to attract our top pupils. This, together with a marketing and government backed campaign to uplift teacher status in society, can only bring the change forward. This is the way Finland has moved over the last 30 years, achieving top results in their education system assessment.
ReplyDeleteIt actually takes a long time for the effects of a " change in the education system" to be observable in society, and this would apply for both possitive and negative changes. In my view " reversal of the problem.
ReplyDelete