Does Higher Education = Higher Consumption?
Good Morning
The wonders of modern technology and the failure of the server that hosts this site, have kept the King of Simple off the air for two days, but I’m back and rearing to go.
I want to talk a little about what I believe is an overlooked, and hopefully an unintended consequence of our education system.
Is our habit of overspending and over consuming fueled by education? Is higher education a magic elixir for
I think a little of each may apply. Some 44% of the kids graduating from high school are college bound. What is the promise of advanced education? That those who earn higher degrees will be of more benefit to society? That a degree will enable the holder to help others to live better?
Nah, the promise is that with greater education comes greater earning power. We’re talking money here folks, moolah, long green, and a dandy 401-K program.
Ask a group of high school grads why they are off to college and the majority will say to gain a higher earning potential.
But more to my point, I believe the lure of grandiose consumption, the thought of large homes, fine cars, extensive travel and room service, are touted as the benefits of higher education far more often than the benefits of being a valuable and productive member of society. In other words, “gorilla capitalism.”
It’s not the education that I’m railing on; it’s the premise of why an education is valuable. Rather than using advanced education as a means to fully understand that we live in a finite world with finite resources, the capitalist approach of education providing the means for greater income and thus massive consumerism rules the day.
War
Here are a few of War
Has repeatedly criticized the financial industry for what he considers to be a proliferation of advisors who add no value.
Has emphasized, the non-productive aspect of gold. Dig it, store it and guard it; for what?
Has stated, that he only paid 19% of his income for 2006 ($48.1 million) in total federal taxes, while his employees paid 33% of theirs. (He believes this unfair).
Believes that the U.S. dollar will lose value in the long run. He views the
Believes that the world is nearing its maximum capacity of oil production.
Believes government should not be in the business of gambling. He believes it is a tax on ignorance.
Perhaps higher education should be not be aimed at allowing us to raise our consumption habits, but instead, to be a little more like War
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Hey Mike! Warren Buffet for president, I say! At least he would be much more succsessful at improving our economy. I see higher education as being somewhat useless if the basic education is flawed and ineffective. We do not teach our young how to live or survive in todays world. If they do not have a proper and adequate basis then higher education is basically wasted. This is probably why the vocational education system is being much more successful than colleges and universities. Our younger generations do not know how to use a checking account, vote for a decent candidate, shop with a knowledgable idea of what and how they are acquiring items, save money or what loans are advisable, etc, etc. Our education system at the basic level has not changed much in 100 years. Unfortunately the world has. Have a good one Mike!
We had a quick discussion in our office yesterday about the the younger generations after we read an article stating that the younger generations are getting dumber. I stated that I don’t think they are getting dumber, just learning different things. A caveman could argue that we are dumber because we use matches instead of starting a fire with sticks or rocks. The younger generations may not spell as well or know how to balance a check book, but they can shop online, splice video/audio, create websites, and don’t have to balance a checkbook because they can utilize online banking to do it for them. One could argue that it is working smarter not harder. I agree that we need some “life skills” classes. Remember my accounting professor who didn’t know what a P&L statement was? Yikes!
jlking23, I agree that todays kids are learning an entirely new set of life skills but are doing so at the expense of the basic skills of life. As human beings we(Americans in particular) are getting farther and farther away from being in touch with what makes us human. Common sense, logic, self discipline, decency, and even human kindness seem to be disappearing from our basic makeup. We are becoming so consumed with our technology and other toys that we value them more than what we used to have as basic human instincts. Even our religions are ignoring what brought them about in the beginning. This country is so dependant on technology that if we suffered an energy blackout(whether oil or electricity) our whole nation would panic and crumble. When ever you point this out to “the powers that be” they just try to use more technology to fix it. To me that is more scary than any terrorist threat. Have a good one!
Technology in my opinion is a double edged sword. Technology helps us to use resources better, but does not replace resources. We pave roads with oil, not technology.
Technology also helps us to use our finite resources much faster with better mining and transportation techniques.
To Michaels point regarding a power outage, I was in the airport in Seattle when the computers went down some years back. I watched my plane depart without me while the entire airport became sheer chaos.
As we unwisely expand our population, having businesses deal with the public as individuals becomes numerically impossible, human interface is then eliminated as the speed of life requires technology to do that job through computers.
It will prove in the end that human relations were far more important than the current speed of life. I fear that we will approach that end at terminal velocity.