Do low taxes justify poor education scores and jobs going aboad?

Question

With the United States having the 2nd lowest educational scores
in the industrial world and the 3rd lowest taxes in in the same
base of nations, should we assume that companies will hire
better educated people in other countries that have lower labor
costs?

Answer 1

If you're implying that low test scores are caused by low taxes and that in turn is leading to the loss of US jobs, I think that's a big stretch.

First, there is no evidence that taxes and test scores are related. The US has more than tripled per student spending on education on an inflation-adjusted basis in the past 30 years, with no change in the test scores.

Second, test scores are not related to the productivity and innovation potential of a nation. Additionally, our college level education is top notch as evidenced by the strong population of foreign nationals in our colleges.

There's no doubt that company management will try to find ways to add to the bottom line. Many have tried utilizing technical talent outside the U.S. that was unavailable ten years ago and offer a substantially lower cost. That's a microcosm of everything that is going on the U.S. that attracts a lot of media attention. Over the last 100 years 100s of millions of jobs have been eliminated in the U.S. due to innovation and foreign competition. Yet, unemployment is low, our per capita income is the highest in the world, our opportunity is unmatched and our standard of living is much higher for a greater percentage of the population than any other country.

Answer 2

Not necessarily :

1- production must be outsourceable. Geriartric doctors may be better educated in UK but old persons needing care in California wont take the plane to get cured !

2- labour factors must be easy to import : in the reverse direction, Polish doctors should be granted visas and license to exercise in US , if they are ready to charge less . Same is true of French computer graphists in US games and cartoon movies industry.

3- the kind of production involved must require higher/better education.

4- Tax has (almost) no impact since a) education in the US (especially College education) is a largely private business and b) most taxes go into war efforts, and only a few % go to education

To sum up, hiring better educated , lower paid people as labour is not always relevant in every activities.
Clearly in skilled manufacturing facilities, like Intel's or IBM's plants, US companies would rather go build plants in India and China for lower paid, more skilled workers.

Answer 3

Washington D.C. spends about $13,000 per student. That is one of the highest rates in the WORLD. The education system in D.C. is atrocious. Tax rates and educational achievement are NOT related.

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