Posted on 10/15/2013 10:17:38 AM PDT by Kaslin
Some bad news for America, not on the political front this time, but on what corporate executives call human resources.
It's from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's report on adult skills, based on 166,000 interviews in 24 economically advanced countries in 2011 and 2012.
The verdict on the United States: "weak in literacy, very poor in numeracy, but only slightly below average in problem-solving in technology-rich environments."
On literacy, just 12 percent of U.S. adults score at the top two levels, significantly lower than the 22 percent in largely monoethnic and culturally cohesive Japan and Finland. American average scores are below those in our Anglosphere cousins Australia, Canada and England and Northern Ireland.
One-sixth of Americans score at the bottom two levels, compared to 5 percent in Japan and Finland.
On numeracy the United States does even worse -- only 8 percent at the top levels and one-third in the lowest.
Americans do better at problem solving in tech-rich environments, which economist Tyler Cowen in his new book "Average Is Over" says will be of great economic value in the future.
One-third of Americans score at the top two levels, while one-third score at the bottom or lack such skills altogether.
That puts us just below the average of the countries tested. Finland, the Netherlands, Australia and Canada are well ahead.
The OECD report finds a wider range of skills in the U.S. than in other countries surveyed. Americans with only high school educations perform worse than their counterparts in all but one other nation.
And the report found that socioeconomic background is more strongly correlated with skills proficiency in this country.
In addition, there is the uncomfortable finding that disproportionate percentages of blacks and Hispanics have low skills.
Fully half of the Americans with the lowest level of literacy are Hispanic (presumably reflecting some immigrants' weak English) and another 20 percent are black.
This is probably true of other groups. In his 2012 book "Coming Apart," Charles Murray showed that the 30 percent of whites with the lowest education and income levels have low rates of family formation, little involvement in voluntary associations and high levels of substance abuse.
Most likely, those of any race or ethnic groups with divorced or single parents, or who are divorced or single parents themselves, tend to lag below national and international averages in literacy and numeracy.
Another disturbing finding of the OECD is that younger age cohorts in the U.S. do not seem to have skills as high as those in the cohort just below age 65.
All of this suggests that America's economic future may not be as bright as its past -- or that the current economic doldrums may turn out to be the new normal.
What to do? The OECD sensibly calls for better education and more adult skills training. In fact, many worthy attempts have been made and are being made to improve education around the country, and some have had positive results.
Even the Obama administration, despite its political debts to teacher unions, has pitched in to some extent.
In the meantime, the United States can do something about improving skill sets by changing its immigration laws to increase high-skill immigration.
Current immigration law has inadvertently resulted in a vast low-skill migration from Latin America and especially from Mexico. Unanticipated large numbers have used the family reunification provisions to come in legally, and large numbers have crossed the border illegally.
Congress can change that by cutting back on extended family reunification, improving border enforcement and requiring use of e-Verify or other status verification technology.
More important, Congress can vastly expand high-skill immigration. The Senate bill passed last spring goes some distance toward this, but not far enough.
The U.S. should take a lesson from its Anglosphere cousins Australia and Canada, which both have higher immigration proportionate to population and which both outscored the U.S. in literacy, numeracy and high-tech problem solving in the OECD survey.
Australia and Canada allocate large shares of their immigration flow by point systems, which give credit for educational achievement and marketable skills. They do not necessarily tie high-skill immigrants to a single petitioning employer, as H-1B visas do in the U.S.
Both countries are attracting high-skill immigrants, especially from China and India, and both have had better performing economies than the U.S. does.
Making a concerted effort to attract high-skill immigrants should be a no-brainer for America.
Democrat Solution:
Drag the numbers down even more by adding another 15 to 30 illegals to the labor pool.
Affirmative Action takes a toll over time. And they’re raised by and as lifelong entertainment addicts too.
~~~Drag the numbers down even more by adding another 15 to 30 illegals to the labor pool.~~~
Drag the numbers down even more by adding another 15 to 30 MILLION illegals to the labor pool.
There. Fixed it.
America: Stuck on Stupid.
They’re skilled and able-bodied enough to cart away the entire inventory of a Walmart in a few hours.
Forget that! What’s happening with Jay-Z and Beyonce? When they been to the White House lately?
I know one low-skilled worker who became president of the United States.
I have the solution, but they wouldn’t like it because it’s not “nice”.
Pay them what they’re worth (no minimum wage) and they don’t eat if they don’t work.
Two incentives to get “skilled”.
Maybe sell them to China?
And raise the minimum wage so even the least capable "workers" can "earn a living wage". When one tells you that, if you pay them what they're worth, they can't live on that, you should give them a tin cup, 3 broken pencils, and point out the nearest street corner designated for begging...
Yes, but one can excel in all of these areas and still be utterly unemployable if one is over age 40. Employers want smart, cheap, malleable, young people, and that's why they have migrated operations overseas in search of them. They despair that American young people are so stupid...but that isn't quite enough to make them hire from the large pool of older Americans who are not.
The US will soon be full of idiots and they'll need you to feed, house, and clothe them.
And state education camps are de facto moron breeding centers.
What, and have them come back to us in petfood?
‘I know one low-skilled worker who became president of the United States.’
That, sir, is an atrocious attack against the unskilled worker. Unskilled does not me no skills. Obama has no skills.
“The verdict on the United States: ‘weak in literacy, very poor in numeracy, but only slightly below average in problem-solving in technology-rich environments.”’
So, basically - semi-trainable apes? From what I’ve seen as an employer, I’d agree!
And I live in a BASTION of really, really SMART Liberals! So smart, they put me to shame, as I’m a mouth-breathing, knuckle-dragging Conservative, LOL! They would never deign to work for the likes of me, anyways. *SMIRK*
“They’re skilled and able-bodied enough to cart away the entire inventory of a Walmart in a few hours.”
POST OF THE DAY! :)
How about we conscript 'em into a mercenary army we can rent out to Saudi Arabia, Al Queda or the Muslim Brotherhood to further the Grand Caliphate?
It isn't just Canada and Australia. It is every county in the world with a sane immigration system.
Back during the Yugoslavian civil war when the United Nations was assigning every first world country a refugee quota, the United States dutifully complied. Japan told them to pound sand.
We got immigrants like the Boston Marathon bomber and the Trolley Square shooter. Japan accepted a grand total of two-- one who was married to a Japanese national, the other an Orthodox Christian single engineer. They had the sense to say no thanks to Muslims. Why don't we?
What’s the point in going into a huge amount of debt to get high skills when there aren’t enough high skill jobs?
How about sending them all to Congress?
With their skill set, they can hardly do a worse job.
I’m not worried about the work force. My concern is with the welfare force.
"..another few years under Odungo, and they will be cutting Mexican lawns"
Yes but. The massive immigration of foreign technical workers has many benefits but it does also result in the wide-spread unemployment of American citizens in those important industries. This directly leads to the reticence of American students to study engineering and science. Which was the main complaint in the article. Conclusion: the article is self-defeating. It proposes a course of action ( more and more importation of foreign technical workers ) which is a primary cause more and more American engineers and scientists wind up on welfare or driving taxicabs. And THAT is why more and more American students avoid taking technical courses The recommended cure is a prescription to make the disease worse. Sounds like the obamacare approach to economic policy.
Trade them one for one with Mexicans crossing the border. It may be unpopular with fellow freepers, but I prefer their unskilled labor force over ours.
Simple, stop degrading “low skilled” workers and actually teach pride in a hard days work.
Not everybody needs to be an engineer, we need (American) builders too.
Forgive their student loans?
I was just going to say that. Thank you.
The Left is creating their ideal society wherein there are hundreds of millions of such people who can be harvested periodically for votes and meanwhile sustained on a diet of marxist BS.
Imagine a nation-spanning poultry barn.
Put an airport CNN tv in front of each cage. Drop in some EBT purchased pellets once in a while. Harvest the votes laid. Retain power forever.
There. Fixed it.
THX
IMHO, The USA will more and more resemble someplace like Argentina or Brazil. A smaller share of the country is educated, hard-working and productive. A larger share is uneducated, uncultured and non-working. The result is populist, redistributionist policies to appease and buy the votes of the underclass, corrupt, nanny-state politics, high taxes, large parts of cities that are "no go" areas due to crime
High Skill jobs result in self sufficiency and place a terrible obstacle in front of those seeking power and control via depedency on government.
The primary charter of the EPA and likeminded agencies, is to destroy our domestic energy production, our industrial base, and any entity associated with economic growth.
Kick them out of office and let them go to work for a living.
Absolutely Not! By driving down the wages of high-skill American citizens, this would further erode any incentive for our students to apply themselves.
Educate your children. Make them learn real skills. Teach them Leadership. Teach them Freedom. Teach them Responsibility. Teach them Family.
They will stand out from the crowd. They will succeed.
<<<< The dumb have more children while the intelligent have fewer. >>>>
How are your friends at Planned Parenthood doing, noobie?
I suggest you crawl back under the rock you crawled out from
True. I wouldn’t want my dog to get sick!
Not to worry, ...give them some free Obama phones and free food cards, and register them as Democrats.
Level five in video games
This story can’t be right. We have the wonderful Department of Education to lead us to the learned promised land.
Besides, America is awash in diversity training and is not that the most important thing?
send them all back to their home countries. For any who haven't concluded the reason the obozo has stopped the INS from enforcing the law, consider that the dilution of true Americans in this country is an orchestrated scheme to work in favor of the NWO.
*The dumb have more children while the intelligent have fewer. *
The prophetic Idiocracy movie became about 90% true sometime around late 2008 or early 2009.
Employers whine about unskilled, illiterate workers, yet balk at hiring skilled, educated workers over 25-30. It doesn’t seem to matter what the sector/business. Employers made their own, lumpy beds.
But I thought nearly everyone went to college these days, even though many need remedial classes.
If the conservatives go after only the Dems we will lose the illegal immigration issue because you leave one powerful rich proponent for it intact, that is corporate America. Those CEO all want illegal immigration reform and more H-1B workers, but at the same time fire more American workers and refuse to hire US college grads. In the next revolt, three trees will be needed to hang traitors, one for Dem socialists, one for GOP free traders (traitors) and one for corporate CEO’s. Until those three groups are rendered powerless, the American middle class will never have a day of economic peace!!
Why do we have to 'do' anything? When did government/society become responsible for everything?
It's the parents responsibility to make kids understand they need a viable skill set for living.
Let the smart ones who abide by this common sense concept succeed in life, and the let stupid ones starve.
....and yes, I'll probably get flamed for being cold and harsh, but oh well!
O has skills. He can lie with the best of them. And he can read a TelePrompTer. Give him credit for what he does best.
“Making a concerted effort to attract high-skill immigrants should be a no-brainer for America.”
Yeah, but they might no vote dim which is the real goal.
The planned parenthood “solution” isn’t the only solution. We could stop paying the stupid to have children, for instance.
Or maybe we could stop excessively taxing the productive and so make having children more affordable.
;)
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