Apologists for offshoring say – with frustratingly non-specific frequency – that the “solution” is more education and training for workers whose jobs have gone overseas.
This is a canard: according to an article on CNN.COM, “In January, for example, there were more unemployed workers 25 or older with college degrees than there were unemployed workers without high school diplomas, according to the latest Labor Department data.”
Another article in today’s New York Times online edition talks about the elmination of even MORE of the already pathetically few programs for Gifted and Talented public school students as a result of the ludicrous “No Child Left Behind” Federal government policy.
The argument by the Greenspans and Fiorinas is that displaced American workers are themselves to blame by being stupid enough to get degrees in easy, trivial subjects like Computer Science instead of socially useful, intellectually challenging fields like Business Administration.
Meanwhile, after decades of job losses in manufacturing, the Clinton Library found itself awarding a $900,000+ contract for custom built glass cases to a company in Scotland. They couldn’t find a firm in the US that could handle the work.
Given the relentless push to offshoring, the steady destruction of G&T, and the anti-science attitude generally of the Bush administration, I’m not sure where the “next big thing” is going to evolve, but I’m pretty sure it ain’t going to be here.