Human Capital

HUMAN CAPITAL AND AMERICA'S FUTURE: AN ECONOMIC STRATEGY FOR THE '90s. Edited by David W. Hornbeck and Lester M. Salamon. Johns Hopkins University Press. 402 pages. Paper, $16.95. Hard cover, $45.What should the United Sates do to become more competitive? It needs to make greater investments in human capital: the skills, abilities and knowledge possessed by its workforce. So say the authors of "Human Capital and America's Future."Lester A. Salamon, director of the Johns Hopkins University Institute for Policy Studies, believes that "human capital investment must become the centerpiece of our economic strategy for the years ahead."

Economic experts say it all the time: Amid the fierce competition of the new global marketplace, job one for America is getting the most out of our human capital. Yet even as this asset is deemed of high importance to individual companies and the overall economy, managers have become increasingly reluctant to invest in employee education and training. Labor Day's arrival can serve to remind employers that such investments are critical to an economy whose competitive advantage stems not from how inexpensive our labor is relative to other countries', but rather how capable it is of doing complex work with cutting-edge technology.

The coming exodus of baby boomers into retirement may draw down the nation's Social Security coffers and overload its golf courses, but to International Business Machines Corp. it looks like a gold mine. IBM plans to announce today an initiative to help enterprises cope with brain drain as large waves of employees near retirement. "Aging population will be one of the major social and business issues of the 21st Century," said Mary Sue Rogers, an executive with IBM's human capital management group.

Regarding your editorial on lowering college tuition rates for undocumented immigrants ("A flawed compromise," March 8), investing in our youth makes good sense, in particular where education is concerned. If our legislators truly recognized the value of education and how it results in increased productivity that, in turn, leads to increased revenue for the state down the road, they would be funding free tuition to all of our residents. However, cultivating our local "human capital," as you phrase it, will only result in rewards for the state if that capital stays here.

Economic experts say it all the time: Amid the fierce competition of the new global marketplace, job one for America is getting the most out of our human capital. Yet even as this asset is deemed of high importance to individual companies and the overall economy, managers have become increasingly reluctant to invest in employee education and training. Labor Day's arrival can serve to remind employers that such investments are critical to an economy whose competitive advantage stems not from how inexpensive our labor is relative to other countries', but rather how capable it is of doing complex work with cutting-edge technology.

Look at your paycheck, and imagine what it will look like next year, the year after that and maybe in 10, 20 or 30 years into the future. Do you see bonds? Perhaps not, but in essence, that's what you are looking at, said Roger Ibbotson, a Yale economist and founder of the research firm Ibbotson Associates Inc. And if you start thinking of your entire work life, and all the paychecks you'll receive until retirement, as a bond, then it should make it easier to figure out what mixture of stocks and bonds is appropriate for you in your 401(k)

Does Baltimore need to be "remade," as some have recently suggested? The Johns Hopkins School of Public Health is on board, insisting that the basic social organization in the city is out of date, that human capital has been stripped away, and that we need to reinvent something (again). As a concerned city resident and taxpayer, I disagree. I see a world-class city that has been infected by a drug culture that has been allowed to not just survive but thrive here, causing an expensive public health problem.

As a Senate subcommittee draws closer to holding hearings on baseball's exemption from antitrust laws, members of Congress have received a nonpartisan economic report that questions whether the exemption "serves a useful public purpose."The 22-page report, compiled by the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress, also shows how the salary cap the clubs have implemented would benefit the owners in an overwhelming economic way and suggests the novel step of placing new franchises in existing large-revenue markets like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles as a way of leveling revenues between high-revenue and low-revenue clubs.

Regarding your editorial on lowering college tuition rates for undocumented immigrants ("A flawed compromise," March 8), investing in our youth makes good sense, in particular where education is concerned. If our legislators truly recognized the value of education and how it results in increased productivity that, in turn, leads to increased revenue for the state down the road, they would be funding free tuition to all of our residents. However, cultivating our local "human capital," as you phrase it, will only result in rewards for the state if that capital stays here.

Beyond the dismal graduation rate, attacks on teachers, gangs invading funerals in church and an array of other social pathologies, some see extraordinary opportunity for Baltimore. The city has a new police commissioner who has presided over a stunning falloff in murders this year. It has a bright, engaging new schools chief reaching out to a city immobilized by a general breakdown in civil behavior. Despite the idea that Baltimore's problems are just too big for any individual or group, more than 350 Baltimoreans have responded to Andres Alonso's call for volunteers to support teachers - and to show students that someone wants them to succeed.

Does Baltimore need to be "remade," as some have recently suggested? The Johns Hopkins School of Public Health is on board, insisting that the basic social organization in the city is out of date, that human capital has been stripped away, and that we need to reinvent something (again). As a concerned city resident and taxpayer, I disagree. I see a world-class city that has been infected by a drug culture that has been allowed to not just survive but thrive here, causing an expensive public health problem.

Beyond the dismal graduation rate, attacks on teachers, gangs invading funerals in church and an array of other social pathologies, some see extraordinary opportunity for Baltimore. The city has a new police commissioner who has presided over a stunning falloff in murders this year. It has a bright, engaging new schools chief reaching out to a city immobilized by a general breakdown in civil behavior. Despite the idea that Baltimore's problems are just too big for any individual or group, more than 350 Baltimoreans have responded to Andres Alonso's call for volunteers to support teachers - and to show students that someone wants them to succeed.

Much of what could be gleaned from a recent governmentwide survey of federal workers already was known. The Department of Homeland Security is disorganized, and workers at smaller agencies with very specific missions, such as the National Science Foundation, generally have warmer feelings about their jobs than workers at larger agencies. One surprise, however, is improvements in workplace morale at the Woodlawn-based Social Security Administration since the Office of Personnel Management started soliciting feedback in 2002.

Look at your paycheck, and imagine what it will look like next year, the year after that and maybe in 10, 20 or 30 years into the future. Do you see bonds? Perhaps not, but in essence, that's what you are looking at, said Roger Ibbotson, a Yale economist and founder of the research firm Ibbotson Associates Inc. And if you start thinking of your entire work life, and all the paychecks you'll receive until retirement, as a bond, then it should make it easier to figure out what mixture of stocks and bonds is appropriate for you in your 401(k)

The coming exodus of baby boomers into retirement may draw down the nation's Social Security coffers and overload its golf courses, but to International Business Machines Corp. it looks like a gold mine. IBM plans to announce today an initiative to help enterprises cope with brain drain as large waves of employees near retirement. "Aging population will be one of the major social and business issues of the 21st Century," said Mary Sue Rogers, an executive with IBM's human capital management group.

Human Capital By Stephen Amidon. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 384 pages. $25. It's the end of an era -- spring 2001, when the boom of the previous decade is fading and the terrorist threats of the next are fast approaching. But the characters in Stephen Amidon's novel are oblivious to everything except their own tangled fates in a prosperous suburban haven called Totten Crossing. So strong is the pressure to be rich and happy that everyone in town must strive constantly to get ahead with better jobs, bigger cars and fancier houses.

Human Capital By Stephen Amidon. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 384 pages. $25. It's the end of an era -- spring 2001, when the boom of the previous decade is fading and the terrorist threats of the next are fast approaching. But the characters in Stephen Amidon's novel are oblivious to everything except their own tangled fates in a prosperous suburban haven called Totten Crossing. So strong is the pressure to be rich and happy that everyone in town must strive constantly to get ahead with better jobs, bigger cars and fancier houses.

WASHINGTON -- Republicans say their fight to cut taxes by $800 billion over 10 years will be a long stride down the road to heaven, and failure to cut will pave the path to hell because Democrats will spend the projected surpluses promiscuously.But before taking this seriously, take note of "academic earmarks," -- appropriations Congress awards to colleges or universities without normal competitive, merit-based reviews.The Chronicle of Higher Education says this "academic pork barrel swelled dramatically this year, reaching the highest dollar total ever," -- $797 million.

WASHINGTON -- Republicans say their fight to cut taxes by $800 billion over 10 years will be a long stride down the road to heaven, and failure to cut will pave the path to hell because Democrats will spend the projected surpluses promiscuously.But before taking this seriously, take note of "academic earmarks," -- appropriations Congress awards to colleges or universities without normal competitive, merit-based reviews.The Chronicle of Higher Education says this "academic pork barrel swelled dramatically this year, reaching the highest dollar total ever," -- $797 million.

WASHINGTON -- Only a mind as closed as an oyster could miss the dominating fact of contemporary politics. It is that American society is creating wealth at an astonishing rate, yet the government is so strapped it can barely fund basic domestic programs.Only a mind as acute as Chris DeMuth's can fully construe this fact. Mr. DeMuth, president of American Enterprise Institute, argues that as America rapidly becomes rich beyond the dreams of even our parents, it also becomes freer and more egalitarian.