Jan 29 2008
S1ck and tir9d
I’m sick and tired of hearing that education is the key to eradicating poverty. The more people that have degrees and are thus are qualified for positions, only saturates the job market with potential employees. The free market law of supply and demand equates to more competition for the positions and decreases the wage that can be offered for the same labor. This is ten fold for United State citizens when the open job market and new communication systems allows people in foreign nations the positions that used to be dictated by geography. I bares mentioning communist nations totally disregarding intellectual property rights for the good of “the people.”
Post high school education has it’s place and should be a requisite for some jobs, such as brain surgeons and moon rovers. But for the most part college education does only one main thing, supports the economy by making more debt and thus the ability to print more money. It also may be detrimental to those people who thrive off of self education. I wouldn’t be half the artist I am today had I the influence of masters of arts. My culinary degree might have meant something if the market wasn’t flooded with wanna be bambers. Thanks E, you’ve made me “a dime a dozen.” (actual quote from Susan Spicer about me (celebrity chef)).
The cure to poverty comes in maintaining a balance of human population and a restructuring of physical property right. We the people own the planet, not, they the corporations. And some things should be totally funded by the state, and thus owned by the people. Like the cure for cancer.
WOW do you have a chip on your shoulder about not having a college degree?
That surprises me.
Education eradicating poverty is not referring to higher education, but the basics like being able to read and write. I do think a good grade school education with a mix of Arts and literature along with math, science and history is step one in giving children a head start in life.
I would agree that college degrees are merely formalities that allow you to get your foot in the door with respective companies. After that it is up to the individual to apply themselves to the job and on job learning with a splattering of kiss ass.
However, a child that does not have the basics after getting out of grade school really does not have much opportunity unless they are independently wealthy or truly gifted; such as an idiot savant. Lack of opportunity can result in poverty or a life of crime.
Having a college degree in philosophy, art, history or English likewise will probably result in poverty, just ask all my friends with college degrees who work as bartenders
No.
I believe that the references to education and poverty are in regards to college. We still live a Nation that provides primary education, therefor it’s really not an issue. However, with the faith based initiatives state schools may never be able to compete in a stacked market.
I completely agree with you.
It wasn’t long ago when high school education was reserved for brain surgeons and rocket scientists, with the majority of students entering the “real world” after completing an 8th grade education. Compare this with the situation today, where a bachelor’s degree is a minimum if you want to avoid flipping burgers.
It’s a difficult situation, though. Some educators and researchers in academia share your opinion as well, but it’s close to impossible to make into reality: professors may care about research and education, but administrators are interested in turning a profit. The people who run universities want to see more, not less, undergrads. It’s an unfortunate situation because although the professors and graduate students make a university famous, it is the undergraduates who make them money.
Sorry for the grammer errors. I’m sick and tired.
Well Jacob and Hasemörder Kønig,
Feel free to believe what you want, because evidently your insecurities are more important than the real message.
No Child Left Behind was a fucked up program, but it did embrace what I am talking about. No child should get out of our public system with out the means to read, write or do simple math.
I am sorry and very saddened that you do not understand this, as it gives me little hope for you as people raising children.
It is not about you as adults; it is about our future generations of children.
You both can obviously read and write; this is about the people who can not do either, and yes they have less opportunity with that as a disadvantage.
So please do not introspect – allow your feelings to flow to what is the better good, which are kids that can read, write and do at least simple math. That is what education means with emancipation. Reading a novel or taking a test requires basic skills. Basic skill then lend to more education which then lends to being a person functioning in humanity.
Jacob. You are embittered by a system of your own invention. Perhaps you did not have a chance to go to college; that does not change the fact that education at a lower level, whether we have champion burger flippers or brain scientists who can make a level of burger flipping obsolete less. It is not about college: It is about you, your drive and ambition. If you have neither than I guess the best you can hope for is that you can read a write on this site.
Stop Blaming and Start doing.
My post was about how education does not equal the liberation from poverty. No child should be left behind but shutting down schools and fortifying religious institutions is not the answer to the problem. Public schools should be funded by the state and all have equal standards.
I’m not sure why you insist that I’m insecure. I’m a realist who knows my particular job market. And how it was ruined with the Cooking Chanel. The 30K I spent on culinary education would have been better spent eating a fine restaurants, not school. My drive didn’t come from school and I’m part of the system not it’s creator.
I never said fortifying religious institutions was the answer to anything. Basic educational skills, reading, writing and math do not necessarily make you exempt from poverty, but it helps.
In your post you said:
I’m sick and tired of hearing that education is the key to eradicating poverty. The more people that have degrees and are thus are qualified for positions, only saturates the job market with potential employees. The free market law of supply and demand equates to more competition for the positions and decreases the wage that can be offered for the same labor.
I am replying to the first part: education is the first step in eradicating poverty.
It is not degreed people that saturate a market; it is the supply and demand of who employers want. Instead of blaming the food channel, why not blame the government who gives large American corporations tax incentives to out source jobs to third world countries.
There is a glut of unemployed computer programmers in the US thanks to Mr. Gates single handedly building India’s economy. Then look to all the manufacturing jobs that are lost to out sourcing in China.
In conclusion, education helps not hinders; what hinders is the lack of opportunity in certain markets and the American government’s relentless indifference to the out sourcing of jobs. The government is more worried about establishing trade agreements so they have debt to borrow against keeping the nation afloat based on said debt.
Personally instead of $600 in spending incentives I wish the government would tax large corporations FOR out sourcing jobs thereby giving a fair wage to American workers where they then have the money to spend on a daily basis not in a one time governmental hand out.
Also I do not think you are insecure as much as not seeing the complete picture and blaming your problems on a personal assumption not a global reality.
Raspootin: I agree that personal ambition can and should drive a person to succeed in whatever way they want to define success. Unfortunately, the construction of our system requires many people to obtain a college degree before they can even start to realistically strive after their goals. For some people college is about gaining the skills necessary to succeed, but for many students college is about getting a sheet of paper to cite on a resume in order to finally begin a career. (And FWIW I’m currently in my 3rd year of PhD studies, so if I’m embittered at all it’s not for lack of opportunity.)
When I refer to poverty I’m doing so on a global scale with my relative position in it. What do you want from me? gOd view? I didn’t even realize I was taking a risk getting a 30K culinary degree. I was fed bad information and was to young to realize it.
Outsourcing is a fact of business. I have no problem with supply and demand of labor. Lucky for me no one can paint like I do. Externaliltes are the real issue bugging corporations that are only interested in turning a profit, for that’s when the state and therefor the people suffer for private profits.
From a poor man’s perspective US cooperations are a god send opportunity to keep their family afloat. The universe makes the opportunities, not the communist party.
Jason,
Just to tell a short story of embitterment, I too graduated from college and was promised a “Cadillac” degree from Tulane.
The best I could do was $5/hr at a hotel. I went back to bartending for 2 years until I realized I had to establish myself. So back to umm equate it $7.00 / hr. with a boss with no degree that hated me as a public ally traded company had just bought them.
But What I really want to talk about is my first interview outside the bar. It was with the old fart that owned Chiquita (sp) Bananas. I was sent by an agency to interview. The comptroller thought I might be worth more than the $12K job offered with all the sick looking people in cubes in front of his office.
I walked in, the controller said” I think she has what it takes for the $17K job”
He looked me over and said” HOW the Fuck dare you to walk into my office and ask for more than what you were interviewed for? You fucking Tulane’s are people that can afford but can’t produce any better than your football team. Who the fuck do you think you are? Do you think because you paid money for a diploma that I should give you a job? You know Fuck, so go fuck yourself.”
I cried, the comptroller agonized, but I still felt like shit regardless of a degree or not.
What are you doing your doctorate in?
I finally did get the experience that I needed with the boss that hated me for having a college degree. Her Boss did not have a college degree either, and I was very discriminated against. I rose above. I applied. I don’t make a trillion, but am happy with my life in the private sector.
Once again… what is your thesis about, I am interested.
I’m glad you’ve made things work out for yourself. It’s unfortunate that the discrimination runs both ways and sometimes discriminates against people with degrees. Regardless of whether or not college actually makes you better prepared for a job, at the very least it proves a person capable of focusing on a task for four years in order to earn a degree–even if this is not an advantage, it shouldn’t be cause for discrimination.
I’m at Penn State right now studying astrobiology. My particular area of research involves climate studies, including the early Earth, present day Earth, and other planets with respect to the persistence of life. My thesis involves the calculation of the outer edge of thehabitable zone, which is the farthest distance a planet can be from its star and still sustain liquid water on its surface. This has application as we continue to discover new planets around distant stars, for we can measure the size and orbital radius of extrasolar planets. Finding planets within the habitable zone (especially a rocky planet with other similarities to earth), then, gives us targets for sites that could potentially harbor some form of life we may recognize.