Of Education And Its Reform
The entire Left/Liberal/Humanist/Progressive theology when summarised is:
1. Man is a rational animal.
2. Man can be transformed into a loving, caring, productive creature who would only help his neighbours irrespective of colour, creed, Caste, language, ethnicity, would drink kool-aid with them, and sing kumbaya everyday in the evening.
3. If he is not like above, it is because of the institutions, and lack of education.
4. So reform the institutions of governance, and educate everybody.
And so, all the time you hear this non-stop music: reform and educate, reform and educate, reform and educate.
But somehow, even after passing all the progressive laws and packing every institution with the progressives, and ensuring 100% education, man remains greedy, selfish, self-centred. Wars do not stop, crime does not stop, poverty doesn't go anywhere. They have tried 100% education, 100% graduation, (in countries like Russia, Japan, and all the countries of the west, and even our own Kerala). And they themselves have been in power in these and many countries. But utopia they promised hasn't materialised.
Reality is actually different:
1. Men do not cooperate for free.
2. They exchange their produce.
3. Division of labour increases productivity as proved by Ricardo mathematically.
4. Nobody knows who should do what. Nobody knows who should be the doctor, who his compounder, and who the sweeper of the clinic. But if everybody is set free, they somehow settle into this or that profession.
5. Nobody knows what should be the value of a product or service or what should be the wages in a given profession, as shown by Carl Manger in his Marginal Utility theory.
6. So, if a society is set free, with State there keeping order and enforcing contracts, the society becomes progressively richer, over decades and centuries, as more and more division of labour takes place.
7. But if State starts interfering in the trade and commerce and industry, economy starts declining, people again start passing into poverty.
8. Education helps in gaining skills what others are ready to pay for. But we do not know what skills are required in what quantity. So, if left alone, people automatically educate themselves to the extent it adds to their productivity.In advanced economies, problem starts when some people educate themselves and nobody is ready to buy their skills. They become the malcontents.
Left/Liberal/Humanist/Progressive thugs enter into picture, and using these malcontents, start threatening revolution again. Those in power then bring out the claim that if the educated are not getting the job, it means education is not proper, let us reform it. Music again starts: reform the education, reform the education, reform the education.
In reality, education never gives us jobs. Only somebody's business, industry, trade, commerce give us jobs. Even government jobs are made possible by private business and trade only.
And what we are doing to promote business and industry?If an existing (existing, not new) steel plant or an aluminium plant wants to increase its capacity from say 2 MT to 4 MT, it needs 150 clearances (hundred and fifty), and counting.
That is the only reform we need. We need to set the business, industry, trade, and commerce free.
And to the "educated unemployed," we need to give the heartbreaking news that it was never agreed in the social compact that if you acquired a degree, your neighbours will arrange a desk/supervisory job for you. But yes, if you stop supporting the Leftist thugs, your chances of such a job would indeed increase.
We do not realise that what is true for an individual may not be true for the country/society as a whole.
For example, suppose we divert entire budget to education and open enough IITs and AIIMS so that every Indian is either an IIT or AIIMS graduate, will they get jobs matching with their degrees?