Globalization’s ailments were supposed to have a ready cure. Education would prepare American workers to take advantage of the dynamic and well-paying careers of the future, even as many jobs that once supported families and communities headed overseas. American firms, employing this increasingly skilled workforce, would outcompete foreign rivals and expand into new markets.
When these things did not happen — when wages stagnated, cheap imports flooded domestic markets, and American exporters struggled to gain footholds abroad — many assumed the problem must be with education too. Employers lamented “skills gaps” that left them unable to find the talent they needed.
Colleges, already receiving more than $200 billion in public funding each year, demanded greater resources. Economists and pundits devised creative euphemisms to sound original as they repeated ad nauseum their prescription of education and training and, when those didn’t work, more of the same.
Recommended Reading
Men’s Realism
The masculinity crisis is serious but most solutions on offer are not
Sen. Tom Cotton on Education and Rebuilding American Capitalism
Sen. Tom Cotton and Oren Cass discuss the future of conservative economics and the importance of workforce development.
Policy Brief: Banning Bachelor’s Degree Requirements
Prohibit employers from making a bachelor’s degree a job requirement