Quote:
Originally Posted by Jonaspublius
Yeah, go vote for Santorum. Education and growth aren't related. You obviously have no grasp of how the growth of higher education and access to it changed the entire economy. Bachelors or better was under five percent in 1947. The GI bill and the growth of state supported schools had that to thirty percent by 2000. Small sliver my ass. Cognitive ability is required in most jobs of value, and while all college grads don't have it, US high schools do not teach it.
I agree with you not just here, but elsewhre as well. My only point is this: isn't a college degree just an appeal to authority?
I'm an autodidact and a college dropout. I made a great living and in fact left school to pursue better opportunities. I have never regretted that decision.
In many ways, college's restrictive structure and constant need to coerce people into "well rounded" educational models was harmful. It fights market forces based on division of labor (specialization). It's more important to learn at your own pace and be specialized than to be well rounded and move at the pace of the average student in your class.
So, in that way, I find education HIGHLY impoertant...but not so much institutional education.
Of course, for those who are not autodidacts this will not apply entirely. I still think the specialization aspect does apply...but learning at your own pace may be less important when you can't learn without instruction.
EDit: I don't agree in subsidizing education as you do however, to be clear. I think that's what caused the inflated costs to begin with. Anyone familiar with Medicare and a senior using it should know what I mean. My elderly mother has to get her prescriptions once every 2 weeks so her doctors can charge Medicare for an office visit every 2 weeks instead ofj ust issuing one refillable prescription monthly, bi-monthly, etc. This drives up the cost through fraud, obviously. She has turned in several doctors...not one has been prosecuted or changed their methods. It costs her more in gas to go to these appointments than it does for some of the prescriptions. This type of price driving occurs when loans are available without credit, when institutions can charge almost maximum for attendance to their institutions, etc.
Ever notice how you buy a book for a 101 class, then need a whole other book for 102 (or 1010, 1020) class even though you never read even a third of the 101 class' book to begin with? It's a way to gouge students. The same is done with credit hour pricing.
You can get to a point where the population is overeducted for the tasks available in the economy. If you over-subsidize it you can hit that tipping point and waste resources massively. In many regards, we have reached that point. Many kids who are not of the achievement level necessary are going to college on loans they can't afford. This degrades the value of the degrees and inflates the price through artificial demand. It'd be a good idea to at least make the system allocate funds by achievement level more (less loans based on simple heartbeat, and more based on a scholarship-type system). Not everyone should go to college, for sure...but even if most should, we shouldn't allow the institutions involved to overinflate demand.
But your points on education and how capital is allocated efficiently is right on, imho. (As are several other points you're making.)
Last edited by Gankstar; 03-10-2012 at 12:54 PM.