EDIT: Improved version at: http://anamecon.blogspot.com/2015/07/education-is-insufficient-to-maintain.html
A recent post over at Bloomberg Business:' Global Labor Glut Sinking Wages Means U.S. Needs to Get Schooled' http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-04/global-labor-glut-sinking-wages-means-u-s-needs-to-get-schooled is nonsense.
From the post: "The most effective way of combating this oversupply [of workers] is to promote
increased training and education of U.S. workers so they can provide
skills unavailable elsewhere to employers, according to experts who have
studied the problem."
Education will not maintain US wages in the face of
international competition. Once foreign countries are
able to supply sufficient basic education, both in quantity and
quality, there is nothing to stop them investing in the
necessary specialized education needed for their own workers... Information (education)
is more transferable than labor. .The development of skills in foreign countries cannot be prevented. The US cannot embargo the export of information..Any advantage in education is transitory, requiring a continuing race of investment in human capital..
Further, since the cost of education in US is greater than the cost
of the same education in
foreign countries, the US is at a disadvantage in such a race. For example, it is economically efficient for foreign countries to import US educators to train their own work force. For
the same pay as in US, foreign nations can often supply a much. higher
standard of living. And
because education in the US is more expensive, it makes greater sense for
international corporations to invest in the education of the foreign
workers, rather than American workers.... Finally, the high cost of maintaining and developing capital
discourages the investment in education in the US, aggravating the
competitive disadvantage in which American labor finds itself. The result of this is that, over time, US labor's disadvantage will increase, and their wages continue to decline. This decline in wages will not result in greater competitiveness, because of the decrease in the capitalization.of American labor force.
