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Today, sigh bear Monday, seems as good as any day to try out the hypothesis that "an educated populace would make for poor consumers".
Some will reject this out of hand, perhaps on the claim that we do already have an educated populace, and since they are not poor consumers the hypothesis falls apart. The task here then is to show the populace as not educated. Another line of attack would be to claim that even if we achieve an educated populace—Erehwon, as some have it—these folks would still be good consumers. This will require poking at a hypothetical situation and wondering how folks in that different environment may consume.
How educated are STEM widgets destined for corporate factories? Here we may need to define what educated means, and note a variance of opinions: how could someone who has served their time not be educated? They got their degrees; therefore, educated. The contrary opinion is that continuing daycare has educated citizens, if at all, as a side effect of the rush to teach to the test, which is followed by more of the same. Corporations replace the test with a performance review. This will certainly select for citizens who are good at taking tests and passing performance reviews. But are they educated?
A new survey commissioned from Gallup by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and the National Geographic Society (NGS) finds that adult Americans exhibit gaps in their knowledge about geography and world affairs. While the report shows that U.S. adults have limited knowledge about these topics, seven in ten respondents consider international issues to be relevant to their daily lives and express a desire to promote education in these areas.
More than two thousand U.S. adults participated in the survey, which tested knowledge about geography, foreign policy, and world demographics. Respondents were asked about their interest in those topics and how much they learned about each in school.
Overall, respondents answered just over half of the knowledge questions correctly, and only 6 percent got at least 80 percent of the questions right.
U.S. Adults’ Knowledge About the World (2019)
So what did they learn in those long years in school? Were they not being educated? Granted, geographic facts may not be something folks have memorized, but do they know how to educate themselves about the relevant issue? Can they debate a topic without going at the wrong side like so many Capulets and Montagues? The desire to promote education seems short of the ability and means to do so. What was the education system doing for them?
The Prussian model of schooling (indoctrination, if you will) has seen a number of critics over the years, including that I have recently read:
Fisher and Gatto are notable for having taught within the system. They are not so positive about the practice. Gatto in particular left a high paying job in marketing. Now marketing may be defined as the art of leading consumers about by the nose. Others have a positive view of marketing; I recall an argument with someone who thought nothing wrong of plastering car-windows with fliers; while walking around (for how else does one get around?) I had observed that such fliers often end up clogging storm drains, or get stuck in the bushes. Litter, in other words.
Much of this will result in agreeing to disagree, if someone sees modern day marketing and education and unbridled consumer spending as goods.
Assuming an educated populace, one that we do not yet have, would consumption patterns change? I would argue yes: an educated populace would raise troublesome questions concerning marketing, surveillance capitalism, externalities, whether there is more to life than the relentless pursuit of Taylorism, that sort of thing. Why the mindless consumption of landfill-enhancing goods? Could fewer durable goods be produced, ones that last a good long while and are easy to repair?
gemini://nicholasjohnson.ch/2021/05/21/the-cult-of-productivity/
An example: everybody used git. Almost nobody knew how to use it. When shown "sure, just create a bare repository like this, and then push to it like so" the professor's eyes widened, "wow, you can do that?" The students, likewise, were as much in the dark. Was anyone available to teach git, that everyone used? Not really. If any git education happened, it would need to be done on the side. Outside the system. On the sly, like at a speakeasy.
Could git be taught within the system? Sure. Perhaps by an affiliate adjunct visiting lecturer who of course has the proper credentials and certificates—for how else could git be taught? But when could that course be scheduled with the already busy workload for the students? Perhaps they are too busy being educated to learn.