Without a well-trained, well-paid, continuously improving workforce the United States cannot compete with other nations effectively—and won’t be able to sustain high and rising living standards. Yet at all levels of the economy, we behave as if we don’t believe that: Firms value short-term profits over investment in workers; federal policy makers fail to address high, persistent unemployment and underemployment; most people’s wages have stagnated for three decades, despite gains in productivity; and unions have become convenient scapegoats even as their influence has sharply declined. These realities seem to defy logic, yet we allow this human capital paradox to persist. The result: a true national emergency.
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