chasing Mensa

from the Wall Street Journal today (subscription required)--

My father encouraged his children to study a profession. Why? "Because, no matter the job market, you'll always be able to hang up a shingle," he assured us.

[snip]

In my youth, future white-collar wearers took college-prep courses while other kids were lumped into vocational programs, where they welded and drilled. We learned how to solve those pesky word problems involving cars speeding away from Cleveland at 62 miles an hour with half-tanks of gas. They actually learned how to make those cars go.

Forget revenge of the nerds. These days it's revenge of the electrician, the mechanic and the plumber: Blue collars aren't what they used to be. General Motors may advertise Mr. Goodwrench, but a good mechanic must master computer diagnostics. Go over to the waiting room at the Mercedes dealer and you'll see white-collar America at the mercy of blue-collar. I might be able to forecast the future path of the euro-to-yen ratio, but you think I can replace the catalytic converter under the hood of my car? Say, where'd they hide the hood latch, anyway?

My point is not merely that the educated class is the bumbling class .... Rather the old-fashioned distinction between blue collar and white has been lost in an economy that demands ever-stronger skills and active brain cells. In the 1950s (and into the 1960s) a stumblebum in a gray flannel suit with a bachelor's degree had a good chance of receiving a high, stable income complete with suburban house and a manageable mortgage. Think Darrin on "Bewitched." But these days carrying around your college diploma doesn't entitle you to much. For one thing, a college degree is a cheapened currency. In 1950, only 6% of the population had one, compared with 28% today.

[snip]

The outsourcing threat from Asia no longer aims at just the blue collars. American architects, radiologists and tax accountants feel nervous about Indian competitors (hence the white-collar unions). A guy wearing a turban in Bangalore can push the TurboTax buttons just as fast as a guy in Teaneck.

In "Bait and Switch," Barbara Ehrenreich's latest plunge into working-world disguises, she impersonates a laid-off white-collar executive. She wastes her time attending self-help seminars and sneering at hapless people while rejecting job offers. What should she have done? Taken a job! Learned a new trick besides snobbery! A year of community-college schooling can raise an older female's income by 10%, according to a Chicago Federal Reserve Board study.

Blue-collar assembly workers started facing these threats a long time ago. Between 1940 and 2000, U.S. manufacturing output soared 11-fold. But while one-third of U.S. workers once walked through a factory gate, only 13% need to do so today -- a stunning productivity gain. Ross Perot's twangy warning of the "giant sucking sound" was aimed at blue-collar assemblers. But now the white collars are itching.

[snip]

We are in a global race for IQ points. Not useless Mensa meeting points but applied IQ points. Brains put to work. Those countries that best harness IQ will prosper most. The U.S. produces about half the annual patent filings in the world. That's an outstanding number. But new ideas are not enough if we do not have a motivated, educated work force to exploit them. Despite improved high-school graduation rates, our kids are the Jamaican bobsled team of education, to judge by international test scores. They lose to the Slovenians.

Mr. Buchholz, an economic adviser in the White House of George H.W. Bush, is the author of "Bringing the Jobs Home" (Penguin/Sentinel, 2004).

applied IQ points