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way too many people think that the only purpose of education is to earn money. It isn't. Education has intrinsic value.

by gtz65 15y ago

KevinEldon 15y ago
Education's general value is subject to the law of diminishing returns. Once you have learned to critically study and learn a subject of your choosing the value of education is mostly related to the value of what you produce from what you've learned. A hermit who learns the secrets of the universe and doesn't share is of no real value. A history (or engineering) major who doesn't learn how to apply what they've studied is of little use. I think it's just generally easier for engineering majors, or business majors to apply what they've learned.
randomdata 15y ago
Agreed. Education is a hobby – and that is a good thing. Hobbies always are to the betterment of the person engaging in them. Hobbies can, and often do, lead to high paying jobs and careers. Hobbies lead you to meet all kinds of interesting people who will shape your future. Hobbies are, if nothing else, enjoyable. We just need to not lose sight of the fact that you should never bank your future on a hobby. Starting a band has made a lot of people incredibly wealthy, but that doesn't mean your band will find success. Do it because you love it, not because you want to be rich. There is nothing you can do to prepare yourself to be successful, else everyone would be.
Jach 15y ago
The problem is people complect education with college, most egregiously in the private sector with companies requiring BS/BA degrees to do any job (and reasonably above minimal wage). In the US, most education is free or nearly so, especially in the humanities, if you're willing to do it on your own. College on the other hand is obscenely expensive, both in opportunity costs as well as the actual loans and so on. In order to combat that expense, you should have "something to show for it" that's applicable in the job market when you're done. The purpose of college has become making money, via getting that piece of paper, social connections, etc. If you sign up for a liberal arts degree priced at $100k, you're doing a bad job at making money (and a pretty bad job at educating depending on where you go--even with Computer Science if you pick a bad school you could have learned everything and more in 1 year that the school took 4 years to teach you). Since you're doing a bad job, you should be mocked in the way a person whose goal is to profit in a yard sale and who ends up paying people to take stuff away, should be mocked.

way too many people think that the only purpose of education is to earn money. It isn't. Education has intrinsic value.

by gtz65 15y ago

way too many people think that the only purpose of education is to earn money. It isn't. Education has intrinsic value.

Education's general value is subject to the law of diminishing returns. Once you have learned to critically study and learn a subject of your choosing the value of education is mostly related to the value of what you produce from what you've learned. A hermit who learns the secrets of the universe and doesn't share is of no real value. A history (or engineering) major who doesn't learn how to apply what they've studied is of little use. I think it's just generally easier for engineering majors, or business majors to apply what they've learned.

randomdata 15y ago

Agreed. Education is a hobby – and that is a good thing. Hobbies always are to the betterment of the person engaging in them. Hobbies can, and often do, lead to high paying jobs and careers. Hobbies lead you to meet all kinds of interesting people who will shape your future. Hobbies are, if nothing else, enjoyable. We just need to not lose sight of the fact that you should never bank your future on a hobby. Starting a band has made a lot of people incredibly wealthy, but that doesn't mean your band will find success. Do it because you love it, not because you want to be rich. There is nothing you can do to prepare yourself to be successful, else everyone would be.

Jach 15y ago

The problem is people complect education with college, most egregiously in the private sector with companies requiring BS/BA degrees to do any job (and reasonably above minimal wage). In the US, most education is free or nearly so, especially in the humanities, if you're willing to do it on your own. College on the other hand is obscenely expensive, both in opportunity costs as well as the actual loans and so on. In order to combat that expense, you should have "something to show for it" that's applicable in the job market when you're done. The purpose of college has become making money, via getting that piece of paper, social connections, etc. If you sign up for a liberal arts degree priced at $100k, you're doing a bad job at making money (and a pretty bad job at educating depending on where you go--even with Computer Science if you pick a bad school you could have learned everything and more in 1 year that the school took 4 years to teach you). Since you're doing a bad job, you should be mocked in the way a person whose goal is to profit in a yard sale and who ends up paying people to take stuff away, should be mocked.