> But it is not only among developing countries that links between
> education and growth prove elusive. 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.
>
Interesting. I was in Switzerland a few years ago, in a wonderful little town called Interlaaken. A couple of blocks from the hostel where we were staying there was a small lumber mill, and we walked past it at least twice a day, every day, going to and fro the town.
Unlike a lot of work places I've walked by in my life, this place looked all right. There seemed no fake rah, rah stuff; no slacking; no gloom. Just a solid, functional, clean, well-organized work place. There seemed time for work and time for lunch and time for life outside of work. There was none of the claustrophobia or the workplace about it. It's so seldom that a workplace does not resemble a prison. The men seemed to feel good about who they were and what they were doing. There was no kowtowing in anyone's body language, no false humility, no arrogance. I remember being very impressed and thinking that it was these simple, basic things -- like a functional workplace -- that would make life worth living. I don't know how "educated" those men were. I doubt anyone had gone to college; but they seemed to have the knowledge they needed to do their job -- not like trained monkeys, but like creative workmen.
I have always thought that elevating mental labor above physical labor was a bad idea. For one thing, the greeks were not wrong about mens sana in corpore sano (healthy mind in a healthy body). For another, it is in the process of working through stuff that the most valuable insights are gained, including the realization that a given task might not be worth doing at all. And it always seems to be the case that privileging mental labor always goes hand in hand with some kind of hierarchy based on mumbo jumbo. At any rate, I think one reason why everybody wants to be an artist, is because of the marriage of thought and deed in art.
I have been a mental laborer all my life (save for my mommy job) and while I have benefitted both financially and socially from it, I would give it all up if i could help create a world in which theory and practice were not divorced, a world in which management and work were not separate, a world in which thought did not displace being.
Joanna