Article • Dean Baker’s Beat the Press
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There’s an old story about a drunk who is looking by the curb for his car keys in the middle of the night. A bystander offers to help and asks the drunk where he lost his keys. The drunk tells him that he dropped them in the bushes. The bystander asks the drunk why he is looking by the curb if he dropped his keys in the bushes, to which the drunk replies, “the light is better here.”
That seems to be the logic that the NYT discovered in a piece that looked at job training programs. It notes several instances in which governments have cut back funding for training for positions where there is a recognizable shortage of workers. Instead they are funding training for jobs where there is already a glut of applicants. It seems that the reason is that the latter type of training is cheaper.
That’s not good policy.