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Ideological divides aside, this is an obvious downside of modern capitalism; Value is defined as what brings in money, which I would wager 99% of people would g

Ideological divides aside, this is an obvious downside of modern capitalism; Value is defined as what brings in money, which I would wager 99% of people would generally agree is not the best definition for the public interest. It is the easiest to measure, though. Trite as it may be to say, there's an obvious value to attracting a larger amount of people to teaching, it's just hard to quantify and takes longer than most politicians' term limits to see the larger benefits.

kneebonian 4y ago
> this is an obvious downside of modern capitalism; Value is defined as what brings in money, And in communism value is defined as what will get you promoted. And in autocracy value is loyalty to the party line And in Neo-Nazism value is what kills the most Jews And so on and so forth, let's not pretend that people making short sighted decisions for personal gain is limited to a single economic system it may be more visible or exactrebated by one system or another but it isn't like Lusheynkinism was pushed because it helped the students of the USSR better feed their people.
- kimbernator 4y ago
  The problem I'm trying to highlight is that the capitalism and focus on the short-term of business is leaking a bit too much into the operation of government. Instead of directing resources in a thoughtful way, it seems more like we're trying to check boxes for the lowest price and forget about the purpose of that funding.
  - jacobr1 4y ago
    Except with something like K12 education we don't actually allocate resources in a market/capitalist fashion. So is your argument that we have a "mindset" problem? One could suggest the opposite problem, we don't have enough markets in eduction and could do more with charters and vouchers, or programs like magnet schools.
kristopolous 4y ago
"brings in money" is so specious. The whole system is subject to how the accounting is structured. Education certainly produces community value. Moving around what column the cost and benefits should be attributed to is a kind of social gerrymandering. It's a function of ideology and power asymmetry. A well educated populace will of course be better off. You're not going to find out why police make twice as much as teachers with neoliberal economics. Fabulists depict things this way to remove human agency and make specific legislative and policy decisions take on the authority of natural law, as if it's a scientific absolute. It's just a slight of hand. All these things can be changed and the sky will not fall.

kneebonian 4y ago

> this is an obvious downside of modern capitalism; Value is defined as what brings in money, And in communism value is defined as what will get you promoted. And in autocracy value is loyalty to the party line And in Neo-Nazism value is what kills the most Jews And so on and so forth, let's not pretend that people making short sighted decisions for personal gain is limited to a single economic system it may be more visible or exactrebated by one system or another but it isn't like Lusheynkinism was pushed because it helped the students of the USSR better feed their people.

kimbernator 4y ago
The problem I'm trying to highlight is that the capitalism and focus on the short-term of business is leaking a bit too much into the operation of government. Instead of directing resources in a thoughtful way, it seems more like we're trying to check boxes for the lowest price and forget about the purpose of that funding.
- jacobr1 4y ago
  Except with something like K12 education we don't actually allocate resources in a market/capitalist fashion. So is your argument that we have a "mindset" problem? One could suggest the opposite problem, we don't have enough markets in eduction and could do more with charters and vouchers, or programs like magnet schools.

kristopolous 4y ago

"brings in money" is so specious. The whole system is subject to how the accounting is structured. Education certainly produces community value. Moving around what column the cost and benefits should be attributed to is a kind of social gerrymandering. It's a function of ideology and power asymmetry. A well educated populace will of course be better off. You're not going to find out why police make twice as much as teachers with neoliberal economics. Fabulists depict things this way to remove human agency and make specific legislative and policy decisions take on the authority of natural law, as if it's a scientific absolute. It's just a slight of hand. All these things can be changed and the sky will not fall.