academic economics

Gordon Fitch gcf at panix.com
Sun Jun 24 07:59:42 PDT 2001


Brad DeLong wrote:
> > Public subsidies to higher education students are a pie-growing
> > policy--one that I believe in--but they are also a blow for a less
> > egalitarian society.

Michael Pollak:
> I'm not quite sure I follow your reasoning here. If the average price of
> higher education is lowered by subsidies, then the percentage of people
> getting one should go up. Cet par, increasing the supply of such people
> should lower the income premium to education and thus diminish wage
> inequality. No?

Since the educational system reproduces the class system, then the more people become involved in it, the more the class system will be strengthened. In practical terms, one may observe (for instance) educational credentials and the invidious comparison thereof becoming more and more involved in employment status decisions even where they are functionally irrelevant.



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