Who is responsible for educating adults?
Nov. 9th, 2016 11:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
timeletsLet's sketch out some thoughts on education.
- Trump won because a large portion of whites without a college degree voted for him;
- They voted for him because they felt that their jobs are disappearing (China, Mexico, Robots, AI etc.);
- The disappearance of those jobs leaves the workers without good economic opportunities;
- There are other opportunities in the economy, but the workers don't have enough education to take advantage of them;
- When they originally took their disappearing jobs their level of education was sufficient;
- At some point in their careers they had a decision to make whether to spend their time on re-educating themselves or continue working;
- If they decide to re-educate themselves they lose current earnings from working;
- If they decide to continue working they lose future earnings due to the disappearance of jobs;
- This is a difficult problem for an individual to solve and s/he can make a mistake;
- On the one hand, the individual is responsible for his/her own mistakes;
- On the other hand, the individual who made a mistake becomes a burden on the society after his/her job disappears;
- On a yet another hand, the individual (e.g. as a citizen voting for Trump) can force the society to supply him/her with a job;
- If the individual makes a mistake by voting for Trump due to his earlier mistake, he imposes a cost on the society, e.g. due to inefficiency;
- If Trump supplies the job to the individual using public resources, he creates another inefficiency;
- To avoid all these inefficiencies, it would be rational for the society to re-educate its members at the right time during their working careers;
- Education for children is mandatory; education for adults is voluntary;
- When an adult makes a wrong re-education decision, the society bears the cost of the mistake;
- As technology cycles shorten, the probability of mistakes increases, which causes an increase in costs, both economic and political.
Question 1: How should we treat individuals who make educational mistakes in their own careers?
Question 2: Who should bear the costs of re-educating the individual?
Question 3: Should we eliminate the need for re-education by preventing jobs from disappearing?
Question 4: Should we mandate individuals to re-educate themselves during their working careers?
Question 5: Is re-education a negative externality imposed by innovation on the society?
- Trump won because a large portion of whites without a college degree voted for him;
- They voted for him because they felt that their jobs are disappearing (China, Mexico, Robots, AI etc.);
- The disappearance of those jobs leaves the workers without good economic opportunities;
- There are other opportunities in the economy, but the workers don't have enough education to take advantage of them;
- When they originally took their disappearing jobs their level of education was sufficient;
- At some point in their careers they had a decision to make whether to spend their time on re-educating themselves or continue working;
- If they decide to re-educate themselves they lose current earnings from working;
- If they decide to continue working they lose future earnings due to the disappearance of jobs;
- This is a difficult problem for an individual to solve and s/he can make a mistake;
- On the one hand, the individual is responsible for his/her own mistakes;
- On the other hand, the individual who made a mistake becomes a burden on the society after his/her job disappears;
- On a yet another hand, the individual (e.g. as a citizen voting for Trump) can force the society to supply him/her with a job;
- If the individual makes a mistake by voting for Trump due to his earlier mistake, he imposes a cost on the society, e.g. due to inefficiency;
- If Trump supplies the job to the individual using public resources, he creates another inefficiency;
- To avoid all these inefficiencies, it would be rational for the society to re-educate its members at the right time during their working careers;
- Education for children is mandatory; education for adults is voluntary;
- When an adult makes a wrong re-education decision, the society bears the cost of the mistake;
- As technology cycles shorten, the probability of mistakes increases, which causes an increase in costs, both economic and political.
Question 1: How should we treat individuals who make educational mistakes in their own careers?
Question 2: Who should bear the costs of re-educating the individual?
Question 3: Should we eliminate the need for re-education by preventing jobs from disappearing?
Question 4: Should we mandate individuals to re-educate themselves during their working careers?
Question 5: Is re-education a negative externality imposed by innovation on the society?
