Income Inequality vs. Education

[tecelote]

Income inequality is a major problem in the US right now. The rich have gotten richer and the poor have gotten poorer for way too long. The problem is not with the economy as much as it is with education.

America was once the gold standard of education. We're now in a free-fall decline among industrialized nations.

I'm not an educator or an economist but I believe if America educated it's people as it should, income in-equality would recede naturally.

Education in America should be free to Americans.

It will cost a lot but it will also cost less than war.

What kind of country are we?

[Supersedeas]

1. access is still an issue even for educated people

[tecelote]

4. That's a problem with traditional education.

I totally agree.

Education should go beyond the school and be available in many ways. It should also be viewed as a life-long adventure.

Since we're failing now, maybe it's time to take a risk and redefine how we look at education. For the price of one war we could change the lives of so many people.

[winter is coming]

2. "The problem is not with the economy as much as it is with education."

There are lot of unemployed and underemployed people with good educations. People didn't lose their good jobs because of their educations; they lost them so some banker or corporate executive could get a fatter bonus.

[tecelote]

5. Good point.

But, I question your description of a good education. Maybe it's the wrong education.

[winter is coming]

6. What would you consider a "right" education?

I've seen a lot of people lose their jobs because they were outsourced, and only one person lose his job because he didn't do it properly.

[tecelote]

7. I don't disagree with you.

Business will do whatever it can do to make a profit. It's too bad we don't have representatives in Washington like businesses do.

But the people that lost their jobs were experienced and, with access to the ability to learn new skills, they would have a better chance of finding a job. Maybe one they like better. Maybe with an education, they could even compete with their old employer.

No guarantee. Just a better opportunity than they have today.

[winter is coming]

8. They didn't lose their jobs for lack of skills.

They lost their jobs because someone in India or China or wherever is now doing them for less money. They are not uneducated nor unskilled; that's a RW talking point. They're simply too expensive. Getting another degree won't change that, although it will put more money in the pockets of the education industry.

[tecelote]

9. I advocate education being free in exchange for fewer wars.

You're arguing about the way business is done. I'm not saying it is a rosy answer to the many faceted problems with business.

I am saying that, a better educated America will make better decisions.

[winter is coming]

11. I'm all for a better-educated America, but all you've been telling me is that people

who don't have good jobs can attribute that lack to poor education, and that's simply not true. There are people that already have the sort of education you advocate who are struggling.

[tecelote]

13. I am a far way from saying that people who are jobless are uneducated or poorly educated.

Jobless people are only one group that can benefit from a free education.

It's just a better than the way we're headed now... lower and lower among industrialized nations.

You're arguing we do what instead?

[winter is coming]

16. I'm all for widely available affordable education, but you seem to think

a lack of education is responsible for our current income inequality situation. It's not, nor is it likely to solve the problem. We didn't accidentally drift into this state: monied interests have been pursuing it for decades.

[tecelote]

10. How many of those people you mention that lost their jobs voted Republican?

[winter is coming]

12. I'm not psychic. The ones I know are Dems. n/t

[Neoma]

14. The proper answer to this that the person you're arguing with is...

Getting an education should be cheap in the first place. There shouldn't be such an effort to get money for an education. This way, if yes that they had their job outsourced, maybe they can acquire new skills until their next job is outsourced. Cheap good education won't solve the joblessness altogether at all. But it's a damned good step in the right direction.

[winter is coming]

15. +1. It certainly wouldn't hurt. n/t

[RainDog]

3. education is no longer a guarantee of a living wage

we're the kind of country that thinks it's more important for capitalists to be able to pay a third-world wage than to elevate the entire society by refusing to kowtow to such feudalists.

Since Ronald Reagan, the U.S. has engaged in a policy of wealth redistribution upward.

So, honestly, the govt. and capitalists shouldn't be surprised when people reach the point they lash out. That's been the reaction to such policies for centuries.

If education mattered, maybe politicians and capitalists would utilize it in order to rein in their greed rather than breed violence.

But greed is stronger than reason, it appears.

[CK_John]

17. 50% of the education system is not needed, the cycer era does not have the jobs.

Schools should be converted to day care centers, arts & crafts, and wilderness camps.

[mythology]

18. Education certainly helps

Given the unemployment level for those with a bachelor's degree is a bit under half the rate for those with a high school degree, education would at least slow the increase of economic inequality.

But there are structural issues that have been put in place since the 1970s that encourage the consolidation of wealth. Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson do a good job exploring this in their book Winner Take All Politics.

[Warren Stupidity]

19. I'm all for educational opportunity equality but the increase in income

inequality is a direct result of the obscene tax cuts for the rich, deregulation, and the dismantling of new deal/great society programs. The cause is the pillaging of our nation conducted by Reagan Republicans and "new" Democrats on behalf of the elites from 1980 until the present moment.

[liberal_at_heart]

20. Education is crucial but so is a living wage. If allowed corporations will continue to

depress wages, andprobably will work towards getting rid of the minimum wage all together. But I completely agree with you on education. Education was the issue that drove me to become an independent.