We have to make things simple to be understood but don’t defy logic by oversimplification.
Does it make sense to tell a (60) year old baby boomer that he needs more education (skills in math and science) in order to succeed? Our population is aging. Do we need more teachers and engineers if there are no jobs available? Of course, there are reasons besides economic reasons to become educated but many people tie logic to pure economics (sometimes becoming illogical). For example, a genius living in poverty not taking advantage of higher education while a rich Dork is admitted to the best schools. A quality mind lost forever versus a below average mind leading industry and the nation over a cliff.
We can easily see that coupling formal education to economic success is defied when we observe all the system engineers at companies like IBM when real productivity changes in the computer world were made by a college dropout–Bill Gates. Much of our innovation has been driven by objectives other than formal education. No, I won’t make the argument that we will become more innovative now that jobs have dried up for college grads and people will have to become entrepreneurs. That would be oversimplification (reductive fallacy).
“If you look at the current and future composition of jobs (the Bureau of Labor Statistics has a pretty good track record predicting future job categories), you’ll find that the sectors adding the most jobs are cashiers, food prep, nurses, home health aides, security guards, waiters and waitresses, customer service reps, landscapers, and truck drivers. In fact, looking at the top 20 occupations expected to add the most jobs over the next 10 years, you’ve got to get to number 19 before you find an image to match the conventional wisdom. There you will find computer software engineers, right in between truckers and repair/maintenance workers.” Source: Crunch, Jared Bernstein
Well intentioned people (including parents) give all kinds of illogical arguments because they haven’t really considered the “facts” and have oversimplified the world for their kids. Therefore, many kids get out of school (after spending thousands of dollars) thinking they have been lied to by the adults they trust most. We need to promote other than economic reasons for a good education particularly when we observe lack of ethics and greed driving decisions (Wall Street).
Strangely enough, we hear a lot of people making economic arguments for greed today. Greed is good! When trust breaks down our society and institutions often break down. Is that an oversimplification?
