We have great cities, huge corporations, a dynamic economy. But we are failing to develop our people.
The wealthy accumulate more wealth, but the tax base shrinks. More of our taxes come from ordinary working people rather than the wealthy. Ordinary people pay taxes; the wealthy hire lawyers to find loopholes.
How much better to invest more of that wealth in building up ordinary families: schools, college, continuous job training, health care. “The country needs to rethink the role of human capital and invest substantially in doing so.” (Kenneth F. Scheve and Matthew J. Slaughter, “How to Save Globalization,” Foreign Affairs, November/December 2018.)
One with minimal schooling and training can no longer walk into a life time job, with benefits. Yet jobs—our daily service—are part of our self-worth.
It is, as the authors point out, not just too many ill-paying jobs but the fact that labor is so unrewarded for too many.
They propose investments, not only in education but in life long training to meet a changing job market. “ . . . it is human capital, more than any other asset, that determines an individual’s changes of thriving in a dynamic economy. The United States should expand its investments in human capital at every stage of American life.”
In other words, invest in “we the people.”