"What we really want is lots of high value add jobs here. This comes through innovation, creativity, a highly skilled and motivated workforce...."
This is what most of the Western world wants, yet it is very difficult to achieve this - largely because of education. Most of the West, not just America, wants the bulk of it's jobs in high value-added positions because of labour costs arbitrage which many companies are forced to engage in because of intense competition. Where education is concerned, some people don't want to go to college, some aren't suited to it and well, funding education is damn expensive and the pressure on politicians to cut educational spending (which takes a long time to payoff) is huge. So you are never going to get all of the workforce in the country to work in high value-add roles, for various reasons.
I was fascinated by this interview with Andy Grove, because I had read an interview with Craig Barrett (current as chairman of Intel) who took a largely polar opposite view to what Grove has said in this article. Barrett was talking about how Ireland must change in order to move out of recession. I think he would be appalled at the notion of the US entering into a fully-blown trade war with China, as Grove advocates.
Barrett quote [on Ireland]: What I said is that [having] smart people (good education) is important, smart ideas (investment in research) is important, and then letting smart people get together with smart ideas to do something is the third thing (the environment). The very same could just as easily apply to the US.
This is what most of the Western world wants, yet it is very difficult to achieve this - largely because of education. Most of the West, not just America, wants the bulk of it's jobs in high value-added positions because of labour costs arbitrage which many companies are forced to engage in because of intense competition. Where education is concerned, some people don't want to go to college, some aren't suited to it and well, funding education is damn expensive and the pressure on politicians to cut educational spending (which takes a long time to payoff) is huge. So you are never going to get all of the workforce in the country to work in high value-add roles, for various reasons.
I was fascinated by this interview with Andy Grove, because I had read an interview with Craig Barrett (current as chairman of Intel) who took a largely polar opposite view to what Grove has said in this article. Barrett was talking about how Ireland must change in order to move out of recession. I think he would be appalled at the notion of the US entering into a fully-blown trade war with China, as Grove advocates.
Barrett quote [on Ireland]: What I said is that [having] smart people (good education) is important, smart ideas (investment in research) is important, and then letting smart people get together with smart ideas to do something is the third thing (the environment). The very same could just as easily apply to the US.
Full article here (a very good read): http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2010/0212/122426...