Those of us who are vehemently pro-globalization often gloss over transitional effects from job losses: Pareto optimality isn’t much of a consolation if you’re the one losing the job. This NYT article provides an overview of problems associated with career schools in the US, the likes of ITT Tech. Vocational education should allow people whose job prospects have been creatively destroyed to find new, higher-on-the-value chain jobs.

The US is in the midst of a structural shift, and it won’t be “green jobs” that save us (and foible the Chinese simultaneously). The article illustrates some of the difficulty with actually getting there, however.

Since most training occurs on the job, why not just give the Pell Grants to Microsoft for hiring a new engineer? The simple answer is probably that 1) people being considered for such a position aren’t those who need it and 2) changing the status of the subsidized institution (to a company) would probably lead to similar system-gaming behavior.