Another reason for getting an MBA

Yesterday's Washington Post had an article on our nation's governors gathering in Des Moines, Iowa for the annual meeting of the National Governors Association. Some of them are also doing something I wish I'd be fortunately enough to be able to do 30 years from now, testing the waters of a presidential campaign. 

What caught my attention was a quote by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, who addressed the governors on improving education. He said that

"30 years ago, given the choice between growing up as a B student in Des Moines or a genius in Beijing or Bangalore, India, nearly everyone would have chosen the B student in Des Moines. Today, he said, because of the technology revolution, being a B student in Des Moines -- or anywhere else in the United States -- may not be enough to compete in the global economy."

This goes to reinforce something I have been feeling, that as technological advances force more Americans to compete with workers in the third world, the only ticket to job security is to enhance our human capital. I grew up in an immigrant family where my parents constantly told me I had to do well in school, otherwise "those Americans" would not give me a job. When I have kids, my motivation for them would be to make themselves intelligent otherwise they won't be able to compete against workers in the third world who work for one quarter the wages of an American counterpart.