On the opposite end of the spectrum, you have viable career paths that are NOT being selected because the income simply won't be enough. We miss out on a lot of talented and motivated individuals that would love to get into a particular field, but it just doesn't pay as well. Teachers and corrections officers come to mind. The career I'm in was not my first choice, but it pays better than what I wanted to do.
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
Honestly, it's not just capitalism. Education is anywhere from free to really cheap in Germany, and we still don't get many people from poorer families into uni.
I see the main problem here as a sort of class divide between people with university degrees and people without. For example: if you work in a public library and don't have a uni degree you will never get more money than salary level 9 (4k/mo) just having a degree and not doing any more/different work more or less instantly puts you on 12 or higher (6k+)
This I think understandably makes people without uni degrees kind of resentful of those who do have them. And if you grow up resenting a certain group of people you are much less likely to join them.
So, no. "Just" getting rid of the cost won't magically get these people into higher education.
I think about this all the time with everything from professions to entertainment. I watch a lot of F1 and those guys are always called the best/most talented drivers in the world, and all I can think of is how the most talented driver in the world is probably a poor kid in India or China who’s starving to death that will never have the chance to develop that talent let alone drive a car.
We are missing out on so many brilliant minds because capitalism requires them to be at the bottom. Meritocracy isn’t real and never will be.
Not being able to afford education isn't limited to the cost of the education either. If I have to take time to study it means I have to spend every hour of every day either working, in class, studying or working on school projects to also afford to eat and have shelter, and even then I think I'd have to choose between the two.
Even the people that can afford it no longer want to work in the industry because capitalism has made them entirely profit oriented and very unrewarding to be a part of, both financially and spiritually.
Not only that, but think of all the intelligent people that could have done something to revolutionize a field but instead work in finance.
This is one reason why I advocate for free and open source software, this same exact reason. So many poor people/kids can't afford to pay for software they need that could help them achieve something.
Capitalism is a method for the control of information. If information were given freely, like as in an actually civilized society not full of fucking barbarians, the world would be a much better place.
Same deal as sexism. Even if you get in, your work will probably be stolen or you will be pushed out.
There's a few problems with this. Two I can identify right off the bat:
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Just because you're passionate about something doesn't mean you're good at it. I don't want the William Hung of medicine doing my surgery.
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By artificially limiting the supply of doctors you are increasing demand and salaries (I agree this seems morally wrong a priori/prima facie, especially for something like health care that is a public good). However when the salaries drop then you reduce incentive for smart people going into the field, which has already been happening in medicine for decades. The top of the class that would've become the brilliant physician in the 20th century is your 21st century finance bro. AKA brain drain. (See also point 1.)
I do agree that it is wrong for people to be unable to pursue careers due to the misfortune of their station of birth. I don't know how to fix it other than funding public education.
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It's ironic that capitalism is missing out on more efficient workers who could maximize production and profit because of this. Who knows where we would be if we actually helped people pursue their goals regardless of current income?
They don’t want experts, they want drones and demagogues.
As soon as the selection criteria for access to higher education is less than meritocratic, it undermines the maximization of Economic outcomes because it reduces the chances for the best people for a job to end up in that job (you get maximum Economic productvity if all over the Economy the best person for a job is the one doing the job).
So even by Rightwing principles of better life by more money making, paid-for Education actually detracts from from it because it leads to less money being made (as people who would otherwise be the most capable for certain highly specialized positions are locked from reaching them due to not being able to afford the right education for it).
What paid gor Education does achieve, and really well, is making sure children with high-middle class and upper class parents inherit their priviledges, no matter how inept they are.
It's basically Feudalism extended to cover the Burgeousie, which is why you see this kind of thing deeply entrenched in countries with barelly reformed monarchic systems such as the UK.
BuT hOw WoUlD yOu PaY fOr It?!
That one is actually weird.
People with more education draw higher salaries. That only works because employers make a higher profit with better educated people. Which means that for profit-maximization, you want to have a pool of potential employees that is maximally well-educated on the expense of someone else. Note the push for more STEM graduates.
You'd think businesses would be all for tax-funded education for everyone.
More than this. People from different countries with qualifications are often denied to transfer their qualifications. We are missing out in more than one area here.
Please. Think of the shareholders!
Was much better before capitalism.
We can also say this is a failure of culture too. Let's take a look at doctors: why do they need so much education in the form we do it now? You, dear reader, could almost certainly do a doctor's job after a couple years of apprenticeship, even if you aren't very bright.
Not that I'm anti education, i think everyone should have a broad education that is at the very least more comprehensive then what we currently have in America.
Have to ensure the only ones who can make it to the "big leagues" see unbridled late Stage Capitalism as a perfect system cause THEY made it (on their parents dime.)
If you let people into the upper echelon IN SPITE Of the system working against them they may point out they're an exception to the rule.
Is it capitalism, or is it the way non-profits budget in order to stay non-profiting when there's some windfall revenue? Seriously stupid if anyone doesn't know: schools will burn money and hire excess staff JUST to keep from having a profit at the end of the year - and then the next year they need to either hit the same numbers or get rid of people and programs. Tuition can only go to the moon as long as every penny of unspent money must be both spent this year and replaced again next year.
"Passion"... What a concept!?
