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The article doesn't seem great, but I might as well dump my favourite quotation about elite overproduction, from /Nationalism/ by Elie Kedourie http://www.amazo
by leoc 5y ago
The article doesn't seem great, but I might as well dump my favourite quotation about elite overproduction, from /Nationalism/ by Elie Kedourie http://www.amazon.com/Nationalism-Elie-Kedourie/dp/063118885 http://www.amazon.com/Nationalism-Elie-Kedourie/dp/063118885... http://www.worldcat.org/title/nationalism/oclc/27812918 http://www.worldcat.org/title/nationalism/oclc/27812918 , about conditions in Germany around 1800:
"The writers who invented and elaborated the post-Kantian theory of the state belonged to a caste which was relatively low on the social scale. They were, most of them, the sons of pastors, artisans, or small farmers. They somehow managed to become university students, most often in the faculty of theology, and last out the duration of their course on minute grants, private lessons, and similar makeshifts. When they graduated they found that their knowledge opened no doors, that they were still in the same social class, looked down upon by a nobility which was stupid, unlettered, and which engrossed the public employments they felt themselves so capable of filling. These students and ex-students felt in them the power to do great things, they had culture, knowledge, ability, they yearned for the life of action, its excitements and rewards, and yet there they were, doomed to spend heartbreaking years as indigent curates waiting to be appointed pastors, or as tutors in some noble household, where they were little better than superior domestics, or as famished writers dependent on the goodwill of an editor or a publisher."
- gradschoolfail 5y agoAt the risk of inviting survival bias, this Sounds like the situation that befell the the Bronte family. Well, at least one can make the argument that the Brontes died young because they couldnt move out of the unhealthy curate living environment.
- JadeNB 5y agoI think your Amazon link got truncated: https://www.amazon.com/Nationalism-Elie-Kedourie/dp/0631188851 https://www.amazon.com/Nationalism-Elie-Kedourie/dp/06311888...
- leoc 5y agoThanks: I copied and pasted from an older comment and forgot to repair the link.
- JPKab 5y agoSo basically all the pre-barista degree people graduating from humanities departments?
- Animats 5y agoThat's happened to several of the Arab oil states. Lots of educated people, but not with practical skills. Egypt has a huge overeducation problem.[1] For several decades, Egypt had a policy that anyone who got through college could get a government job. Then the oil ran out. [1] https://www.brandeis.edu/crown/publications/middle-east-briefs/pdfs/101-200/meb102.pdf https://www.brandeis.edu/crown/publications/middle-east-brie...
- distances 5y agoThanks for the link, interesting read. I had no idea Middle Eastern countries have such major issues with overeducation/underemployment. I'm used to a model where state assigns the number of university admissions based on job market demands, so I didn't imagine this kind of almost unlimited growth in degree holders.
- fzzzy 5y agoAt one point a lot of people only got school up to 8th grade. Then eventually everybody is going to school up to the 12th grade. Maybe in the future it will just be customary to go all the way through 4 years of college.
- distances 5y agoSo when people say university degree, is it usually Bachelor's degree then? I'm assuming Master's so 5-7 years. That's the default in Nordics, I don't know a single person with a Bachelor's.
- kinjba11 5y agoIn the US at least, Bachelor's is much more common than a Master's. It depends on the area of study I bet. The views I grew up around about education treated Master's as a waste of money with a "go PhD or get a job after the 4 year bachelor" prevailing theme.
- 5y ago