[lbo-talk] the view from capital

Dennis Redmond dredmond at efn.org
Tue Sep 12 14:30:14 PDT 2006



> An article that may be relevant to the discussion ...
>
> The Education Myth
> Alison Wolf
>
> Moreover, for every South Korea, and every Hong Kong, we can also find
> developing countries where expanding education merely fueled competition
> for white-collar jobs in a bloated, deadweight state bureaucracy.

Another tenured academic who benefits from the state yapping about how mass education and the state sucks. "I made it, so screw everyone else". Charming.


> Egypt is a classic example of this. Between 1970 and 1998, its primary
> school enrollment rates grew to over 90%, secondary schooling soared
> from 32% to 75%, and university education doubled. Egypt started the
> period as the world's 47th poorest country; it ended the period as the
> 48th poorest.

But all the absolute indicators for Egypt are up: healthcare is better, life expectancy is up, infant mortality down. Education and literacy are more than just good things, they ought to be a human right.


> Switzerland has been one of the
> richest countries in the world for a century - and not because of its
> natural resources. Yet it has the lowest rate of university attendance
> in Western Europe.

That's because Central Europe has efficient workplace training and vocational programs, plus strong unions.


> If you look for a relationship between children's performance on
> international surveys of achievement, and their countries' growth rates
> twenty years on, you will look in vain.

But all the rich industrial countries have high levels of education. There are no exceptions. If you want a high-tech economy, you have to invest in brain cells.


> As university attendance becomes more common, fewer capable young people
> enter vocational training. Yet our economies still need highly trained
> craftspeople far more than another batch of arts graduates.

A professor of management decides the arts are useless? Incredible. Does this person realize the media, ad spend and entertainment industries make up at least 15% of OECD GDP? With professors like this, no wonder British capitalism is so decrepit.

-- DRR



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