[lbo-talk] How much do college students...

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Thu Feb 3 08:50:45 PST 2011


On Feb 3, 2011, at 8:53 AM, David Green wrote:


> Doug, do you think that anything that our educational system could have done
> over the past 30 years could have increased the current productivity of the
> American worker? Do you think that there are any jobs going unfilled because
> there are not workers with the skill to perform them at an adequately productive
> level? Do you think that other countries that have "better" educational systems
> enable their workers to be more productive?

There are some jobs going unfilled because of a lack of skilled workers, yes. Employers complain about this all the time, though they may just want to pay too little. But things are way out of whack for future productivity growth - we're grossly underproducing engineers, for example, and too many of those that we produce are going into finance.

A lot of the productivity growth in the U.S. over the last 10 years has come from simply jacking up the rate of exploitation - not working smarter or with better equipment, but of just speeding up the line (figuratively speaking) and squeezing pay. At the risk of annoying Angelus Novus, I'd say that some European countries do a better job of achieving productivity gains in less brutal and socially damaging ways.

China and other Asian countries seem to be doing a pretty good job of educating their workforces for the future, too.

Doug



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