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0 pointsknowtheory13y ago0 comments

If you're talking about the social contract... who is supposed to train employees? It's certainly the case currently that the US workforce bears the burden of training itself currently often by taking on substantial debt to afford a college degree.

But to say that companies that operate in the US don't have a substantial interest in ensuring that the US has a trained and skilled work force... that just seems dangerously short sighted.

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cperciva13y ago

Companies have an interest in there being a trained and skilled work force -- which is why they lobby for the government to spend tax dollars on education and training.

There's no inconsistency between it not being advantageous for companies to spend their own money training people and it being advantageous for companies to spend everybody's money training people.

yummyfajitas13y ago

Employees could pay for their own training, and receive a wage premium for their trouble? That's what happens now, and it seems to work well.

The only real issue is that the education establishment seems to sell a lot of low quality training that doesn't provide much in the way of job skills. But that's an issue with the educational establishment, not with the purchasers of skilled labor.

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