<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1"> <title></title> </head> <body> 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: <blockquote type="cite" cite="mid4504D306.208@exitleft.org"> <pre wrap="">At around 10/9/06 10:37 pm, Doug Henwood wrote: </pre> <blockquote type="cite"> <pre wrap="">On Sep 10, 2006, at 9:19 PM, joanna wrote: </pre> <blockquote type="cite"> <blockquote type="cite"> <pre wrap="">The more people who fail to complete college, the more people who will blame themselves for their failure to find decent paying jobs. </pre> </blockquote> <pre wrap="">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. </pre> </blockquote> <pre wrap="">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? </pre> </blockquote> <pre wrap=""> 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 </pre> </blockquote> </body> </html>