World Traveler wrote:

....

(d) The problem is multi-faceted -- an under-educated U.S. workforce which
lacks a world-class work ethic, an education system that produces these
unmotivated and unready graduates, a standard of management that does not
motivate or make up the shortfalls of the educational system, and a
political system that can't (or won't) address these problems.

I'll agree w/ most of the treatise except for the generalization that
implies essentially no variance between high and low ends of the
spectrum in both countries.

Overall, US productivity is still one of the world's highest, but that
is achieved by mechanization in the main. There is a skill level that
is variable within all work forces, worldwide. China/India/Pakistan are
no different in that regard than the US.

There is a definite problem in the US that political rhetoric gets in
the way of solutions more than in controlled economies/governments.
That this is wholly bad is a conjecture to which I'm not prepared to
accede. (The form, not the result, that is).