That said, I'm certainly open to any good, well-grounded critiques of the human capital perspective. By well-grounded, I mean one that knows the existing literature and offers a solid theoretical and empirical challenge to it. SA, It seems to me that, given the verifiable long-term increases in productivity, not matched by increases in wages, it would be the burden of "human capital" theorists to show that there is something more that schools or individuals could have done/should do to increase productivity even further, thus making our country more "competitive." "Human capital" theorists apparently want people to believe this, without looking too closely as to whether there is any evidence to support it. I can't imagine that there is any. Obviously, people have enhanced their skills. Obviously, that gives capitalists even greater opportunities to mroe profitably exploit their labor. What "human capital" is supposed to mean in the midst of all of this, in relation to schooling, skills, or anything else, I have no idea. But I would like to see the schools not being scapegoated for the normal functioning of capitalism on a leftist listserv. David Green