oedc nations, essentially the club of modern nations in economic terms. these are the people who are in the front of the pack in global economic conditions. our position has gradually moved backwards. we are still in the pack, we are not the leaders, but we are still in the pack, but now we are in the back. host: 16 when it comes to reading skills, 21st in math skills, 17th when it comes to problem solving. china did not participate. why not? sense, they are not a modern economy yet. the chinese are where we were a theytime ago, and that is, have a relatively small share of their population that is highly educated, but given the size of their population, that is a lot of people. the chinese do not have an education system that raises skill levels universally across the board, but they are in a position now because of their size, even if it is just the top five percent, that is a lot of people. that is an advantage we used to have before china and russia and other communist countries enter the global economy. we were the ones competing with germany and the