Bookraft

The New York Times is sponsoring on its very helpful blog , Room for Debate, a quorum on the US job market in the light of the new economy. The invited guests this time are of mixed quality - but not the comments on what is going wrong in the US economy and its job markets. They hit the nail on the head. An example:

“ Spare us the nonstop wailing and teeth-gnashing about the inadequate number of high school and college students who want to study science and engineering. The students are, in reality, merely behaving rationally. In 2009, what right-thinking student would ever consider a job that corporate America holds in such disrepute? Off-shoring, importation of cheap engineers, job anxiety, lack of respect for the profession...the boardrooms have spoken clearly. - Projunior, commenting on Preparing for the Next Job Market ”

Now this has resonance because I am doing a study on the US Economic Renaissance - the Obama/ Friedman promise of new jobs in green technology. And I am not finding the inventiveness lacking but 3 other factors way out of whack. First financing for inventive ideas has dried up as even venture capitalists are pulling in their green-horns. Second, established companies in various industries (think oil and gas companies for one critical example) are working industriously against green despite their TV ads. But the most serious deficiency is in manufacturing. A Booz + Allen book on manufacturing, Make or Break, delineates some of the most vicious problems quite well. And the list provided above by Projunior, coincides closely with Booz + Allen book's most salient points. I leave the final word to another Room for Debate commenter.

“ The US has tried to get by through just being the retailer/personal service supplier - the only ones in the economic chain who really don't add any value to the finished goods. Not one of the 3 growth areas of (1) retail (2) leisure and hospitality and (3) medical add value to a good. They are all service and end consumption enterprises. If national wealth is defined as the amount of goods produced, the US is broke. ” — AnnS, commenting on Preparing for the Next Job Market