When you go under the knife, would you prefer that the surgeon has a qualification, or not? Would you rather fly in a plane designed by an egyptologist or an aeronautical engineer? Would you rather cross a bridge designed by a media studies buff or a civil engineer?
Why a link between wage and education? This is a capitalist not a socialist society, so the wage depends on the cost of producing the labour-power, the scarcity of the skill, the tight organization of those with the skill etc. Quaint notions of 'justice', 'fairness' etc don't come into it.
--- joanna <123hop at comcast.net> wrote:
> Ah, thanks, ravi. That's exactly what I wanted to say but couldln't
> figure out how. And I asked for your help before I read your missive.
>
> But, as a footnote to your computer software discussion, I want to add
> two things:
>
> 1. The entire frigging computer industry was created and defined by
> people who had no computer science degrees, because they made the shit
> up as they went along. I've been working with these people for twenty
> years. They are mathematicians, musicians, classicists, english majors,
> philosophy majors, egyptologists, etc. and some of them, like Wozniak
> for example, had no degrees at all.
>
> 2. The whole "open source" movement, which is partly a clever way to
> capitalize on free content, is completely degree-independent. If
> somebody comes up with some good, robust code that can be used to expand
> the capabilities of Mozilla or Solaris or whathaveyou, believe me it
> will be adopted and marketed and sold, without the college requirement
> being anyone's concern.
>
> Joanna
>
> ravi wrote:
>
> >At around 10/9/06 10:37 pm, Doug Henwood wrote:
> >
> >
> >>On Sep 10, 2006, at 9:19 PM, joanna wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>>>The more people who fail to complete college, the more people who
> >>>>will blame themselves for their failure to find decent paying jobs.
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>Maybe. Or maybe, it will occur to some that there should be no
> >>>required link between a living wage and a college degree. Maybe it
> >>>will occur to them that college is just a huge justification for
> >>>inequality.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>Joanna, you have a PhD, right? Do you regret having one? Do you think
> >>all those years of education made you better-equipped to cope with the
> >>world and make a living? Isn't education a lot more than a "huge
> >>justification for inequality"? Why take such a hostile, reductionist
> >>attitude?
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> >If I may, the point I think is that in the majority (or at least a
> >large, significant # of) case(s), neither does education prepare you for
> >jobs nor do jobs require the educational qualification that is demanded.
> > Ergo, requirements for these qualification (access to which is
> >correlated to class) are artificial limits. Perhaps a good example is
> >the field of computer programming, where the work of an undergrad
> >student is doing quite well against a multi-billion dollar "best of the
> >world" team's software suite. This is not an exceptional case. In every
> >corner of the field you will find unqualified contributors. Half my
> >co-workers are trained in entirely unrelated fields (ranging from
> >psychology to history). None of the years I spent learning Math and
> >Computer Science has made me better-equipped to cope with the world.
> >Hell, if I had learnt some Jujitsu or something instead, I could at
> >least challenge Mike Larkin and Anarchuck to an ass-whupping!
> >
> >Also, even if college is required for a particular job, why a link
> >between wage and education? Whatever happened to 'each according to his
> >ability, ...'?
> >
> >(I can't believe I am getting involved in one more thread!!! ;-))
> >
> > --ravi
> >
> >
> >
>
> > ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
"To the socialist it is not the horrors of war that are the hardest to endure ... but the horrors of the treachery shown by the leaders of present-day socialism" - Lenin
"When the train of history goes round a bend, all the intellectuals fall off" - Marx
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