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>Exactly what benefit to society does your taxi driver having a PHD provide? That is an extreme example, but it doesn't really make any points. In general, so

>Exactly what benefit to society does your taxi driver having a PHD provide? That is an extreme example, but it doesn't really make any points. In general, society benefits from each member striving to fulfill their potential. That doesn't mean everybody needs to have PhDs; in fact, I think more the opposite, that more people should be doing apprenticeships and attending trade schools. But in general, a society that has higher skill development will be more competitive in a global economy. That helps society as a whole, even more so in societies with less extreme wealth disparity. I honestly don't know what you're advocating. Are you saying some people shouldn't be allowed to get a PhD? Or that somebody with a PhD shouldn't be able to change their mind and switch careers? Or that it's a waste of time for people to pursue a PhD unless there's a direct and immediate benefit to society? And maybe your hypothetical taxi driver's PhD dissertation actually did make a breakthrough contribution to society, but then she decided she didn't care for academia and has taken some time off to plan her next step and is moonlighting as an Uber driver in the interim. Is that enough benefit for you? That question feels like it's making an awful lot of silly assumptions – though maybe I'm the one misinterpreting and making bad assumptions.

danbruc 10y ago
Let me bring this a bit back to were we - or I - started. My point is that I consider it unfair that wages are hugely different between low-skilled work and high-skilled work even if both require similar amounts of work. This only works because the market exploits an imbalance between supply and demanded low-skilled work and is empirically unable to correct this imbalance, for whatever reasons. We of course need some differences in wages to steer the market to match supply and demand and to encourage better education. I certainly have no desire for a society where everyone is happy flipping burgers because it pays good money. But as long as there is low-skilled work to be done, I want those workers to be compensate for the work they are doing, not punished because of an excess in available work power. I also hope that people doing low-skilled work would still strive for better education for the sake of it and to become a »better« human, no matter if it is required for the job or not. And they could do this more easily if they did not have to work three jobs to survive. Finally higher wages for low-skilled workers would also encourage automation and therefore reduce the amount of work humans have to do while not reducing the wealth.
exclusiv 10y ago
> more people should be doing apprenticeships and attending trade schools Wholeheartedly agree. Not everyone needs or should go get a college degree; it's oversold. Yet if you put them as an apprentice to a blacksmith they could get excited and productive in their trade quickly.

danbruc 10y ago

Let me bring this a bit back to were we - or I - started. My point is that I consider it unfair that wages are hugely different between low-skilled work and high-skilled work even if both require similar amounts of work. This only works because the market exploits an imbalance between supply and demanded low-skilled work and is empirically unable to correct this imbalance, for whatever reasons. We of course need some differences in wages to steer the market to match supply and demand and to encourage better education. I certainly have no desire for a society where everyone is happy flipping burgers because it pays good money. But as long as there is low-skilled work to be done, I want those workers to be compensate for the work they are doing, not punished because of an excess in available work power. I also hope that people doing low-skilled work would still strive for better education for the sake of it and to become a »better« human, no matter if it is required for the job or not. And they could do this more easily if they did not have to work three jobs to survive. Finally higher wages for low-skilled workers would also encourage automation and therefore reduce the amount of work humans have to do while not reducing the wealth.

exclusiv 10y ago

> more people should be doing apprenticeships and attending trade schools Wholeheartedly agree. Not everyone needs or should go get a college degree; it's oversold. Yet if you put them as an apprentice to a blacksmith they could get excited and productive in their trade quickly.