Dean Baker, discussing an article by New York Times columnist Tom Friedman:
Thomas Friedmanland bears little resemblance to the world of gravity and arithmetic that the rest of us inhabit.
Thomas Friedman Presents Evidence of a Skills Mismatch in His NYT Column
There are times when being unburdened by conventional notions can be a good thing, but Thomas Friedman seems to have taken that concept far beyond where a "good thing" ends.
Friedman's article has to do with the current "free market" orthodoxy that the depression we are now in is due to some gigantic skills mismatch between what American companies need and what American labor can provide. Unfortunately, this "skills mismatch" usually amounts to people being unwilling to apply their skills for slave wages under whatever conditions their employers want to provide. The actual deficit in our economy at the moment, which is not helped at all by giving employers what they want here, is consumer demand. Part of the reason consumer demand is lower is because our wages are either stagnant or lower, depending on what income bracket we find ourselves in.
None of which, I'm sure, is what Friedman was referring to. The Earth is really only so flat.
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