"When we shrink investments in higher education and research, 'we shoot ourselves in both feet,' remarked K.R. Sridhar, founder of Bloom Energy, the Silicon Valley fuel-cell company. 'Our people become less skilled, so you are shooting yourself in one foot. And the smartest people from around the world have less reason to come here for the quality education, so you are shooting yourself in the other foot.'”
"As I've said, nations that don’t invest in the future tend not to do well there."
Both from "Do You Want the Good News First?", Thomas Friedman, New York Times, 2012-05-19.
Friedman didn't write it explicitly, but I find it ironic that some businesses complain they can't find enough qualified employees and complain about taxes. Duh, do they think that hundreds of thousands are going to be able to afford to pay for all their training, especially when so many companies want narrowly defined "skills"?
Showing posts with label skills. Show all posts
Showing posts with label skills. Show all posts
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Monday, November 16, 2009
Dentistry and the economy
Today I got a new crown in my mouth, learned something about modern dentistry, and had a reinforcement of an idea on the economy.
I went to Lake Dental in Duluth today to have a bad tooth replaced. Instead of putting dental putty over the area, holding it until it set, sending the impression out to a lab, and having me come back another day, the dentist made the crown while I waited.
He wheeled a cart smaller than an airline beverage cart next to the chair, waved a "magic" wand over my teeth to take a three-dimensional picture of my teeth, manipulated the image as I looked, highlighted and improved the bad tooth, and clicked somewhere to start the making of the crown.
While the automatic process was going on, he prepared the site of the bad tooth for the crown.
He later brought out the crown, put it in temporarily to check fit, took it out to buff it, and put it back in. He ground off any sharp edges I described and made the bite better.
When he held up a mirror for me to see the result, I could see almost no difference. The real teeth are a bit more translucent at the edge.
The total time was less than two hours.
What does this have to do with the economy?
My father, a high-school dropout, became a dental prosthetic technician, probably with on-the-job training. He later started his own company out of his basement, Crown Postal Lab. He received impressions in the mail, made the crowns, and mailed them back to the dentists who ordered them. This means the orders took a minimum of four days, especially since my dad had to go into town to mail the packages. He did excellent work; I have a pile of letters of appreciation from dentists when he retired.
Now a computerized machine can do the job in less than two hours.
How many other jobs have become outmoded because of better techniques or machines. Does anybody earn a living ditch digging? No, contractors want people trained to operate back hoes. Even mental jobs have changed drastically. When I started programming, a mathematics degree was not even required. The level of skills now wanted even exceed what was expected when I gave up on programming.
The basic problem of the economy is not so much that it is "bad" or "slow" but that it is changing faster than people can adapt. There are too many people who can do the jobs that are no longer needed and too few people to do the jobs that are needed. It was not helped by the brain drain towards the financial industry to create "products" out of thin air. Now too much money has gone to rescue these "wizards" and not enough is available to train people for the goods and services needed for a solid economy.
I went to Lake Dental in Duluth today to have a bad tooth replaced. Instead of putting dental putty over the area, holding it until it set, sending the impression out to a lab, and having me come back another day, the dentist made the crown while I waited.
He wheeled a cart smaller than an airline beverage cart next to the chair, waved a "magic" wand over my teeth to take a three-dimensional picture of my teeth, manipulated the image as I looked, highlighted and improved the bad tooth, and clicked somewhere to start the making of the crown.
While the automatic process was going on, he prepared the site of the bad tooth for the crown.
He later brought out the crown, put it in temporarily to check fit, took it out to buff it, and put it back in. He ground off any sharp edges I described and made the bite better.
When he held up a mirror for me to see the result, I could see almost no difference. The real teeth are a bit more translucent at the edge.
The total time was less than two hours.
What does this have to do with the economy?
My father, a high-school dropout, became a dental prosthetic technician, probably with on-the-job training. He later started his own company out of his basement, Crown Postal Lab. He received impressions in the mail, made the crowns, and mailed them back to the dentists who ordered them. This means the orders took a minimum of four days, especially since my dad had to go into town to mail the packages. He did excellent work; I have a pile of letters of appreciation from dentists when he retired.
Now a computerized machine can do the job in less than two hours.
How many other jobs have become outmoded because of better techniques or machines. Does anybody earn a living ditch digging? No, contractors want people trained to operate back hoes. Even mental jobs have changed drastically. When I started programming, a mathematics degree was not even required. The level of skills now wanted even exceed what was expected when I gave up on programming.
The basic problem of the economy is not so much that it is "bad" or "slow" but that it is changing faster than people can adapt. There are too many people who can do the jobs that are no longer needed and too few people to do the jobs that are needed. It was not helped by the brain drain towards the financial industry to create "products" out of thin air. Now too much money has gone to rescue these "wizards" and not enough is available to train people for the goods and services needed for a solid economy.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Shortchanging education leads to big bucks health care
We too often look at parts of our society as unrelated to other parts. We link property taxes to education and do not properly support it to give our children a truly superb education. For example, we focus on reading and computation, but neglect art, music, and critical thinking, skills that promote and lead to much better thinking abilities.
As a result many of our children do not develop the skills that are in demand in our economy. For these, we spend an inordinate amount of time and money subsidizing corporations to create jobs.
But many jobs are going unfilled because there are not enough people to do them. This leads to higher demand for those who can do these skilled jobs which leads to higher wages for these employees.
A prime example of this is the shortage of doctors. Recently St. Mary's Duluth Clinic said it needed 139 doctors. You know that those doctors who are available have a long list of employment choices. To get them, SMDC is going to have to pay a lot.
Since health care organizations have to pay a lot for doctors they are going either pay others less or raise their fees, often both. As fees get higher and higher, health care premiums go higher and higher, often outstripping inflation. As premiums go higher, fewer people can afford health care.
When children don't get adequate health care they don't do as well in school. Therefore we need more money for schools to adequately educate these students. But we don't want to pay the taxes to do so because our health care premiums are so high.
As a result many of our children do not develop the skills that are in demand in our economy. For these, we spend an inordinate amount of time and money subsidizing corporations to create jobs.
But many jobs are going unfilled because there are not enough people to do them. This leads to higher demand for those who can do these skilled jobs which leads to higher wages for these employees.
A prime example of this is the shortage of doctors. Recently St. Mary's Duluth Clinic said it needed 139 doctors. You know that those doctors who are available have a long list of employment choices. To get them, SMDC is going to have to pay a lot.
Since health care organizations have to pay a lot for doctors they are going either pay others less or raise their fees, often both. As fees get higher and higher, health care premiums go higher and higher, often outstripping inflation. As premiums go higher, fewer people can afford health care.
When children don't get adequate health care they don't do as well in school. Therefore we need more money for schools to adequately educate these students. But we don't want to pay the taxes to do so because our health care premiums are so high.
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