Human Capital with William Khrem from COMER

Special Guest: William Khrem, Founder of Committee of Monetary and Economic Reform (www.comer.org) Subject: Human Capital CAP's Policy: Whereas: 1) One of the key lessons, perhaps the greatest of all that was discovered from the embers of World War II, and then forgotten, has to do with the unique value of human capital, and 2) At the end of the struggle Washington sent hundreds of young Economists to Germany and Japan to study the extent of the destruction and from that to forecast how long it was likely to take these two Defeated powers to become formidable competitors on world markets once more... Two decades later, one of these Theodore Schultz of the University Of Chicago, wrote that it was remarkable how wide of the mark they were in their predictions. The reason for the miss was, he declared, that they concentrated on physical destruction, and underestimated the importance of the highly educated and disciplined work force, that had come through the struggle relatively intact. 3) From the experience he concluded that investment in human capital education, and hence health and all social services are the most productive investments a country can make. 4) The depreciation of human capital is a slow one, since the offspring of bright educated people tend to be brighter and more easily educated and socially well-adjusted. Yet nowhere in official statistics is human capital in education or the environment treated as a public investment. On the contrary, understaffed schools and colleges are seen as a success in budget -balancing and responsibility. Therefore: Be it resolved that CAP demand that the Canadian government treat human capital as a public investment. Host: Christopher Porter - Leader of Canadian Action Party Vision of Change for Canada