Innovation: We need to be more tech savvy

Re: "We're losing too many jobs to machines" (reader columnist, 4-25).

Barbara Parsons correctly stated that she is not a Luddite; she is a technophobe. A Luddite would sift sugar into the self-checkout scale to disable it.

When I graduated from engineering school in 1957, my education had a half-life of eight years. Initially, I wondered what would refill my then half-empty brain but realized my most valuable knowledge was that I knew how to learn. Don't fight change; learn how to use it.

Our capitalist system works best with innovation and competition. Extremes are computer prices (down) and cable TV and medical costs (up).

College tuition has grown far faster than inflation with the oddity that top colleges push the advantages of their degrees yet reject 70 to 90 percent of applicants. Our education system should meaningfully implement more technical savvy. Those robots need development and technical support.

Look to Europe and how it approaches education for the diversity of skills required in the changing workplace.

This story was originally published April 26, 2016 at 11:42 AM with the headline "Innovation: We need to be more tech savvy."