* snort * You got that right. The one thing few people are willing to face is that very many things are in fact a zero-sum game– including many forms of wealth– such that that which is a benefit to everyone is an advantage to no one. You can’t increase everyone’s pay (i.e. everyone’s advantage) by educating them all more, and most especially you can’t by many of the more useless, if interesting, areas of study.
Simon
hand, (I like that)
I mostly agree with your points. A few more thoughts:
Education is short term zero sum. Long term (finding better ways to do things) it is a positive sum.
Our current problem is that credentials are over priced leading to a market collapse – i.e. the structure is reassembling. Parts are being eliminated. That is why there is so much hurt.
The old structure is having a local failure. The “local” is a very large part of the system though.
I was in fact a leader in the change. By ’86 I was an aerospace engineer without benefit of a degree. I did it the old fashioned way – books. It is even easier now.
Comments
2 responses to “The Expense Of It All”
* snort * You got that right. The one thing few people are willing to face is that very many things are in fact a zero-sum game– including many forms of wealth– such that that which is a benefit to everyone is an advantage to no one. You can’t increase everyone’s pay (i.e. everyone’s advantage) by educating them all more, and most especially you can’t by many of the more useless, if interesting, areas of study.
hand, (I like that)
I mostly agree with your points. A few more thoughts:
Education is short term zero sum. Long term (finding better ways to do things) it is a positive sum.
Our current problem is that credentials are over priced leading to a market collapse – i.e. the structure is reassembling. Parts are being eliminated. That is why there is so much hurt.
The old structure is having a local failure. The “local” is a very large part of the system though.
I was in fact a leader in the change. By ’86 I was an aerospace engineer without benefit of a degree. I did it the old fashioned way – books. It is even easier now.