When Will Big Business Figure Out That the Education-Industrial Complex is Eating its Lunch?

[kpete]

....... . . The point could be made that it’s surreally illogical that a nation whose free-enterprise system is based entirely upon its citizens being able to earn Dollars would so intentionally hinder and hamper their ability ever to do so. If the free-enterprise system were viewed as a business itself, and it had one of those “old time” CEOs—the ones who genuinely wanted to guide their business toward a path of sustainable profits instead of short-term, bonus-generating revenues—it would seem self-evident that the VERY FIRST thing that CEO would insist upon is that every citizen, as soon as they are issued a birth-certificate, is enrolled in a very focused, comprehensive and absolutely FREE educational process (beginning with pre-school, early-learning day care, and continuing all the way through college or trade-school) the goal of which (obviously) is to generate as many citizen-earners as possible. The business motto would be “Every lost citizen-earner is a lost free-enterprise customer!” And the very first act of the new FREE education process would be the immediate pay-off all existing student debt.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/04/will-big-business-figure-education-industrial-complex-eating-lunch.html

[KurtNYC]

1. Education IS free. It is the credentials that cost money.

Colleges sell their brand to students. You pay $60K+ and you get to put their brand on your resume.

Education itself is optional, even if you pay the $60K. My neighbor has a BS in Biology -- I asked him what is the difference between a bacteria and a virus? His answer wasn't even close. What is the difference between a zygote and an embryo? 0 for 2. Michael Vick went to college, Virginia Tech. Did he learn ethics? Did he attend classes at all?

On the other hand, many successful people have become highly educated without paying for a college degree: F Scott Fitzgerald, Walt Disney, Andrew Carnegie, Oprah, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Russell Simmons, Ellen DeGeneres, Mark Zuckerberg, John Mackey (Whole Foods), John Lennon, John Mayer, Ralph Lauren, Wolfgang Puck, Tom Hanks, Abraham Lincoln, Barry Diller, Ansel Adams, David Geffen, Debbie (Mrs.) Fields, George Eastman, Henry Ford, Larry Ellison, Michael Dell, and Ray Kroc.

You can lead a horse to water...and all that.