[Matt]
Alex Tabarrok posts this chart of burgeoning educational attainment in China, and says that though "Many people worry about what the Chinese education explosion means for the United States but I am optimistic." I agree. In fact, if anything the thing to worry about is that these kind of statistics are too optimistic about what's taking place in China -- oftentimes you'll hear a claim about some Asian country producing ninety trillion new engineers a year and it turns out that they're just counting every repairman as an engineer.
That said, the underlying point is that a better-educated, more-prosperous China is something Americans should welcome. Not only is it good for Chinese people (hardly a small thing) but it's good for Americans, too.
This article available online at:
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2008/05/china-education/45121/
