Daron Acemoglu: evaluation

Transcript context

…Sure. It’s still what we think, right? Yes. Here is my view, and perhaps the op-ed should have been written this way. I love H-1B. I think skilled immigration is great, as it is right now, despite its problems, as you point out. Here is the problem that I’m very troubled by. That educated elite that we’re talking about—let me not use a different word, although I feel uncomfortable with that word, but let’s use that educated elite—has given up on the education of Americans because they think that they can fill any skill gap with importing those skills, whether they are nurses, whether they’re doctors, whether they’re programmers. That’s the problem. I would love to have skilled immigration, but I would love also to renew the, I call this the social compact, to distinguish it from the social contract, the social compact of America such that the influential people, be they politicians, journalists, or tech barons, really have a commitment to the education of Americans. COVID era aside, test scores are pretty flat for decades. Higher education right now, because of President Trump, has a crisis, but in general, longer-term, it’s been getting better and better. Quality of economics research been getting better and better. Why think we’ve given up on education in this country? I don’t see that.…

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