It's no secret that former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich is a huge fan of human capital.

In fact, he's constantly quick to point out how American human capital is more important than financial capital.

As bailouts continue as money pours in to fix our troubled financial markets, Reich says that's great for now, but we need to keep our eye on the long-term ball.

Said Reich, now a Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley, in a widely-circulated and acclaimed presentation this past summer:

Our preoccupation with the immediate crisis of financial capital is causing us to overlook the bigger crisis in America's human capital. While we commit hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to Wall Street, we're slashing our outlays for public education.

Education is largely funded by state and local governments whose revenues are plummeting. As consumers cut back, state sales taxes are shrinking, and as home values decline local property taxes are taking a hit. Three-quarters of our states are facing budget crises. As a result, schools are being closed, teachers laid off, after-school programs cut, so-called "noncritical" subjects like history eliminated, and tuition hiked at state colleges.

It's absurd. We're bailing out every major bank to get financial capital flowing again. But we're squeezing the main sources of our human capital.

Yet, the future competitiveness and standard of living of America depend on our peoples' skills, their capacities to communicate and solve problems, and innovate -- not their ability to borrow money.

What's more, human capital is rooted here, while financial capital moves around the globe at the speed of an electronic blip. Right now global capital markets are frozen, but the big money -- mostly in Asia and the Middle East -- will come back here eventually, bailout or no bailout.

It's our human capital that's in short supply. And without adequate public funding, the supply will shrink further. I'm not saying funding is everything, but without it we can't attract talented people into teaching, keep classrooms small and give our kids a well-rounded curriculum, and ensure that every qualified young person can go to college.

So why are we bailing out Wall Street and not our nation's public schools and colleges? Partly because the crisis in financial capital is immediate while our human capital crisis is unfolding gradually. But maybe it's also because we don't have a central banker for America's human capital -- someone who warns us as loudly as Ben Bernanke did a few months ago of dire consequences if we don't come up with the dough.

And Omer Mutaqi, President of MY HR Supplier, a leading consultation firm in maximizing human capital investments, couldn't agree more.

"Reich is on the mark with his comments," said Mutaqi. "We're constantly amazed at the lack of knowledge even Fortune 500 companies have when it comes to human capital investment.

Firms such as MY HR Supplier help companies to better understand the necessary investments in human capital. "Each organization is different, and you can't just follow a template for success in this area," added Mutaqi. "It takes a thoughtful examination, and the end result is a maximize human capital outlay – one which will then bode well for financial success. It can't be the other way around."

Mutaqi recommends that any organization keep the basic tenets of "human capital" top of mind before reacting to any finance-based situation or crisis – as that is that human capital is the stock of competences, knowledge and personality attributes embodied in the ability to perform labor so as to produce economic value.

So as to produce economic value.

Don't forget that.

For more information, visit www.myhrsupplier.com, or call (866) 606-MYHR (6947), or e-mail info@myhrsupplier.com.