In general, capitalism is more welcoming of innovation than any previous mode of production - but not all innovations are welfare-enhancing. As far as education goes, read Karen Ho's story (in _Liquidated_) of how Wall Street recruited at Harvard, Princeton, and a handful of other schools. They weren't particularly interested in technical training; at the entry level they were hiring freshly minted BA's with degrees in the liberal arts and sciences. The attraction of these bright young things, as far as I can tell, is that they learned quickly, would work incredibly long hours, valued their high salaries and bonuses, and were tractable. The notion that really-existing educational institutions produce either upward mobility for the downtrodden or create critical thinkers with a commitment to egalitarianism is a conceit that makes people with my job feel good, but isn't well grounded.
----- Original Message ---- From: "dredmond at efn.org" <dredmond at efn.org> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Sent: Wed, December 29, 2010 12:02:47 PM Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Reserve army of the Phds
One of the greatest ironies of neoliberalism is that it fundamentally hates both education as well as innovation. Neither is profitable over the short term, and both create long-term egalitarianism and upward mobility -- potential threats to the oligarchy of bubble-capital.
-- DRR
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