Dear Commons Colleagues,

Earlier this year I directed readers of this blog to a reportThe Path Forward: The Future of Graduate Education in the United States (released in April 2010) which calls on the federal government, universities and industry to work together to ensure that U.S. graduate schools remain preeminent (see my blog entry at:   https://apicciano.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2010/05/06/new-report-calls-for-new-initiatives-in-graduate-education/

I recently reread this report in preparation for one of my classes and I was particularly struck by a paragraph referring to the coming “bifurcated” economy.  Here is brief quote from the report:

“The manufacturing economy was built on the shoulders of citizens who had a high school education and whocould rest assured that their livelihoods would be secure until they retired. But times have changed, and the knowledge economy, which is based on creating, evaluating, and trading knowledge and information, has arrived.   Predictions are that the U.S. economy will become bifurcated, with one sector of the workforce performing services that cannot easily be exported, such as hospitality services, construction, car repair, and healthcare, while the other sector will perform work in the knowledge industries…”

I would ask the following:  Do we agree with this prediction that the American economy will go through this human capital reorganization/replacement in its workforce?  Do we agree that we will end with highly educated knowledge workers and others (educated or not) doing the jobs that cannot be exported? Will manufacturing completely disappear in the country?

Tony