So why isn't Google lobbying for free and better college education in the US, if they foresee a decreasing pool of talent in the US in the future?
Edit: they do fund a lot of PhD research in US universities, including fellowship for PhD students. But one can't expect a company, even Google, to overhaul the entire system
As it stands, US education is all over the place, and worse, it's more and more only becoming available to the elite; social mobility is low, that is, if you're born poor chances are you'll end up poor yourself.
This is unlike where I came from, where my dad was a low paid metalworker but I got an effectively free college education and repaid that government funding multiple times over in income taxes in just a few years, whilst simultaneously bringing a lot more money home than my parents did (to oppose any "but income taxes screw with my income" claims).
Anyway, since the government isn't doing it, I do think it's up to the big companies to offer it. That's what the US is all about, isn't it? Changing it to a capitalist government, where it's big companies that rule the people, not the government.
It is for this reason that I don't think private companies can significantly change that, even in the US. Even the most innovative/successful companies don't last that long in the US to make a significant change in the Education system.
And to an even larger extent it's up to the citizens of the U.S. Most don't care enough to support/reward such efforts at the ballot booth, so the politicians aren't motivated, and things don't get done.
Unfortunately, when it comes to legislation and budget considerations (including education), lobbying works.
They will continue to lobby I'm sure, as they will prefer to find the talent they need near their existing infrastructure instead of needing to build new - but they are at the point where plan B (building infrastructure elsewhere) is looking like competitive value for the investment in time and money.
Another argument (of several, large investments like this are very far from simple single-variable issues) may also be that their competitors don't have a foothold there: so by investing first they get access to that talent pool more exclusively than they do the pools elsewhere, at least initially.