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I think competition is a good thing, so long as the game isn't rigged like it is currently where the government picks winners and losers. However; I do agree with you on the point that we have a vast amount of resources within our own borders, and should utilize them.
The global market doesn't care if it was the government who subsidized the winner (they care a bit if it's too successful though) or a private investor who backed it. They care that there is a demand for it and we have the supply. The guy you're responding to is asking for protectionism and closing off the free market, not utilizing it for advantages in the free market.
It's more than just skills, it also involves building a work ethic.
One has to also be responsible, dependable, trustworthy and care about the work they do.
How to make the US globally competitive: Develop More Skills
There's a sharp divide in this country over which path goes forward.
One side says it should the be the path of science and technology, with emphasis on skills that will serve a global economy becoming more interconnected and interdependent.
The other side says that science should be replaced with faith and skills in scripture will be in demand.
There's a sharp divide in this country over which path goes forward.
One side says it should the be the path of science and technology, with emphasis on skills that will serve a global economy becoming more interconnected and interdependent.
The other side says that science should be replaced with faith and skills in scripture will be in demand.
I report. You decide.
Other countries are surpassing us in the skill sets needed for that path and the labor costs to employ them are lower.
Globally competitive? Lol... w/ who? China & India? GTFO of here w/ your slave-wage advocacy.
Uh, I said the slave-wage thing is exactly where I don't want the US to compete. What? Does anyone actually read this at all? The first few responses went on some tangent about social agendas in public school, another one for protectionism and now one about slave-wage advocacy. Does anyone actually read and respond in kind or is every topic just a good place to mash the closest of your repertoire of views?
Other countries are surpassing us in the skill sets needed for that path and the labor costs to employ them are lower.
Other countries with enormous impoverished populations are beginning to train larger portions of their talented individuals in relevant skills.
Here in America, we push an ever-increasing portion of marginal performers into colleges, where they can only succeed in studying criminal justice, art history, and recreational studies. Those who major in the hard sciences and engineering are oftentimes not hired as a result of "American" corporations opting to go after cheap substitutes from India or China.
And of course the usual parade of anti-teacher right wingers with their talk radio marching orders stumble their way into a good thread like bulls in a china cabinet.
There is a wide disparity in schools in the US. School districts where I live are high performing, for the most part, but many people will tell you that's about demographics and not the schools themselves.
I think starting this skills based approach that the OP mentions is where we should begin in the worst peforming schools. Stop trying to teach every kid in the inner city to be a renaissance man/woman. I like English Lit but what's the point if the don't see it as having any function? Teach them something they can use and that the country can use.
Get the government out of the education system. That would be number one.
Since the federal government got involved in education, US students have been doing a nose dive when it comes to international comparisons.
Now the ACLU wants to have students given weeks of maternity and paternity leave from school. Don't expect kids to actually show up to class of course -- let them lay around reproducing but hand them a diploma because that's nice.
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