Perhaps those educated enough to think critically put that skill to work before accepting a factory job making mass produced biscuits. My critical thinking skills lead me to guess that is not the most fulfilling, high paying, or upwardly mobile job even for Oklahoma.
Bama Pie is not a high-end, boutique bakery. It's a low-cost, mass production operation. Their biggest customer? McDonalds. Showcasing their move as an indictment on the US education system seems misguided, as it's primarily a case of cost-cutting outsourcing.
They might sit there, thinking critically, and realise that skill-shortage is economic new-speak for "wage-shortage". Everyone wants a ferrari, no one wants to pay for it. This doesn't mean there is a ferrari-shortage. Similarly, every big business and corporation wants cheap labour, preferably labour that will take the cost of any necessary skills and training on itself, or have it paid for by government. When it cannot get it, the stock standard propaganda cry is "skill shortage", often even when unemployment levels amongst...say...university graduates... remains high.
Of course, despite this "shortage" they will not raise wages. They will not pay for training to up-skill people...because its simply spin.
Then the workers on the line might think critically and realise that the reason the jobs were outsourced had to do with simple wage levels and the relative supply of cheap unskilled labour in other countries, and nothing to do with education, skills, or training at all. They'd realise that the company was just repeating the usual propoganda, and probably be pretty pissed off.
I'm sure that's what companies REALLY want.
though actually probably not the best analogy Ferrari do limit the number of cars they make and to buy one of the new hot ones you often have to be an existing customer.
What I am saying is wrong is believing in oft-repeated corporate propoganda as somehow being representative of the true statements of what motivates their decisions when said companies and societies actively work against any desire for a highly skilled or critical thinking workforce/population...
This was the solution? Seriously? Going through the hassle of opening up a factory on the other side of the planet across language and legal barriers all because the local population in Oklahoma didn't come shrink-wrapped precisely as ordered? Seems to me that a far more simple solution would be to train your work force, rather than externalize that responsibility. If the problems are really so systemic as they are claimed, then demonstrate some civic responsibility and see to it that your community gets its act together.
People have a wide range of different responsibilities (self, family, local community, humankind etc). I don't see why Polish people are morally any less deserving of jobs than Oklahomans. This company clearly thinks the Polish are more capable of doing the job. Who are we to say otherwise?
(Yes, this kind of nationalism bothers me no end.)
But I have a feeling this is less about having a basic skillset and more about that few Americans wanted to spend their time doing that kind of work for what they were willing to pay.