The Annoyed Army

Concerns about the consequences of the problems in the US's educational system usually focus on the consequences for those who have been poorly educated, businesses that have to hire them, and the possibility of those who have been poorly educated being political naive and manipulable. And these concerns are real. A concern of a different kind has been on my mind for some time: what businesses may do when the pool of educated people gets too small. They may be forced to move their operations to places - other countries! - in order to find the educated talent they need. To some degree, this may already be happening. Companies have been bringing educated people in from other countries for years, under H1B visas. US citizens, concerned about their job and compensation prospects, have been working to restrict or shut down this visa program. Many companies have started design centers and design partnerships in other countries. This at least partly due to the economic lure of less expensive talent (and the likelihood that their competitors might use that less expensive talent and drive those who don't out of the market). I think another factor may be that finding educated talent in the US may be getting more difficult. The deficiencies of our education system may be losing us (US) jobs that require greater education.