They still need us! They really really need us!

Teachers that is. Especially ones that demand that you read.

David Frum notices that as manufacturers start to rehire, there is a serious problem with the population they are expecting to hire from.

As manufacturing work gets more taxing, manufacturers are looking at a work force that is actually becoming less literate and less skilled.

In 2007, ETS — the people who run the country’s standardized tests — compiled a battery of scores of basic literacy conducted over the previous 15 years and arrived at a startling warning: On present trends, the country’s average score on basic literacy tests will drop by 5 percent by 2030 as compared to 1992.

That’s a disturbing headline. Behind the headline is even worse news.

His explanation is not convincing (the vast majority of potential hires are natives and the products of American schools), but at least it's a start for a discussion of just what we are doing about education. In this state, that would be cutting budgets massively at both the state and local level and stagnating teachers' salaries along with a few unpaid leave days.

But we must do everything we can not to raise taxes back to the level of, say, the 90s.

The Secret to the success of the Japanese car industry

Some secret Asian discipline and passion for perfection, like Buddhist monks? The passion and determination of the medieval Samurai? Some ineluctable characteristic of being Japanese?

Well, no. Actually it was this guy from Sioux City, Iowa. His name was Edward Deming and he taught the Japanese nearly everything they know about running a manufacturing plant. I remember watching a documentary about him years ago on TV. He is revered by the Japanese who have named their most prestigious award for innovation in manufacturing after him.

So why did this home grown genius have to go to Japan to get anyone to listen to him? Why don't American car companies read his "14 Points" and "7 Deadly Diseases"? And act on them?

uuuuuh.... I don't know. Perhaps they still think Deming's analysis and prescription are just too damn foreign and Japanese and all. Wouldn't work with real Americans. Click on the above link and take a look and see what you think. And remember, when I say I saw the documentary on TV years ago, I really do mean years ago. Someone alert Detroit.