Courtesy of Mish.
Here are a couple more interesting emails from readers in response to Is There a Shortage of Skilled Workers? My Own Personal Experiences.
Steve Keen Responds
Thanks mate–and you’re spot-on.
People who suggest that education is the solution to unemployment, thus implying that it’s the workers’ fault they’re out of work, have no idea what is required to actually get an education or to work in the areas they’re nominating as having “skill shortages”. Most of these experts wouldn’t know a skill if they fell over it.
I saw this all the time in the university sector. Bureaucrazy managers would waft away about “alternative modes of delivery” (a buzz-phrase from the late 1990s) as a way of reducing the costs of delivering tertiary education.
The amount of waste these morons generate as a result of their lack of knowledge of what skills really are is incredible. It’s that and the burden of debt that explain the unemployment levels, not the inappropriate training of the workforce.
By the way, I’ve just been appointed Head of the School of Economics, History and Politics at Kingston University in London–totally unexpected since these positions virtually always go to Neoclassicals. But they have hired me specifically to make it into a center for alternative thought in economics. I’ll start here in July.
Best, Steve
Congratulations and best wishes to Professor Steve Keen
Useless Degree Holder Chimes In
UDH writes …
Hello Mish,
I have been a steady reader of your site for many years and have always found your analysis pragmatic. I initially jumped into a 4-year school right out of high school and due to unfortunate circumstances I had to withdraw during my first year due to medical reasons (completely resolved now). The following year I took general classes at my local community college meant to satisfy prerequisite courses while I determined which career path and major was the way to go.
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