Move On, Yes, But Where?

In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal William Galston asks Democrats a series of questions:

If the information revolution is transforming the labor market, how can we bring computer-science courses into every American public school?

If soaring costs are reducing college attendance and imposing large debt burdens on students, can we use technology to deliver high-quality postsecondary education more affordably?

If new businesses are a key source of innovation and jobs, what should we do to turn around the alarming decline in startups?

If basic research is both a public good and an essential foundation for long-term growth, where can we find the public resources for the sustainable investments in research that the private market will not make?

If the public sector can no longer muster the funds required to meet our infrastructure needs, how can we create incentives for private capital to fill the gap?

If we want a tax code that favors growth, job creation and opportunity for average Americans, what are the key ingredients of tax reform?

If a rising tide no longer lifts all boats, how can we ensure that average Americans share the fruits of 21st-century economic growth?

which I presume to be rhetorical.

I’ll devote most of my time to the first question. Both the telephone and the automobile revolutionized the American economy despite the reality that most Americans never took electrical or mechanical engineering courses. What was important was being able to use them not build them and the same will be true in the case of the information revolution.

We need to devote a lot less energy to making physicians and college professors more efficient via information technology and a lot more energy to harnessing the power of computer and information technology to bring delivering those services to a lot more people. That will create jobs. The jobs they create won’t pay $250,000 a year but they’ll still be good jobs and people who haven’t devoted twelve years to higher education will be able to perform them. Our problem is our commitment to artisanal medicine and education and those are what must go.

I’ve answered many of the other questions before. Unfortunately, I think that more Democrats will fight to hold onto their present strategies than will decide to change them to benefit more average Americans. The basic conceptual change is just too great.