Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeikun
Your last paragraph says it all. We need people who drop out or just barely finish high school to do all the jobs that nobody else wants to do. If everyone has a college degree, we'll have physics majors flipping our burgers.
If you want to look at it from a Marxist/conflict theorist view, this is the upper class (bourgeoisie) keeping down the lower class (proletariat) by allowing those who have money to get more money and those without money to stay there. But, as you said, that's the nature of the economy...
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Answer me this... is the world better or worse if the guy flipping burgers has had the opportunity to learn physics? Sure it's not applicable to his job, but there's something to be said about learning for learning's sake. That kid's life is likely more enriched if he's been to school than otherwise.
But like you pointed out... our system is setup to keep the poor poor, and the rich rich. IMO, arguing that it's okay to accept that system for the economic benefit is frankly short-sighted, because the only economic benefit is to those that are already rich. But eventually, as Marx pointed out, the poor become far more numerous than the rich. Eventually the rich have no one to extract money from, or the proles revolt. It's actually in the best long-term interest of the class in power to educate the masses, but the rich don't tend to think beyond their own lifespans.