My column today used a Harvard Business School competitiveness report as its launching point. It points out a signal danger to our economic future.

The report, “An Economy Doing Half Its Job,” is based on a survey of Harvard business graduates and the school’s own academic research. The research team writes that the nation is competitive when U.S. firms “can (1) compete successfully in the global economy while also (2) supporting high and rising living standards for the average American.” Our problem, unprecedented, is that today the “trajectories on those two goals point in very different directions.”

Here’s the problem and the solution.

They report that firms wanting to bring work back to the states “often struggle to find the skilled labor, the reasonable costs of doing business and the physical infrastructure they need.”

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The finding leads directly to familiar recommendations to “take a smarter approach” to K-12 education, workplace skills and transportation.

Sounds a lot like discussions in our state, doesn’t it?