The Economic Effect of Education

Let me use a real moron to make a point. Today’s moron is Jaden Smith, the son of Will Smith. What he said was laughably stupid and completely not self-aware, but sadly, it matches so much that is being said these days about education. So let’s mock this spoiled dumb*ss and then I’ll debunk the “you don’t need no edukation” crowd.

Jaden... Jaden... Jaden. //snort Jaden made a three part statement that started this way (excuse his inability to use capitalization correctly... the boy ain’t learned):

“People Use To Ask Me What Do You Wanna Be When You Get Older And I Would Say What A Stupid Question The Real Question Is What Am I Right Now.”

Ok, stop right there. What is Jaden right now? Well, he’s a stupid kid who doesn’t seem to get the fact that if he weren’t the son of Will Smith, he would be headed for a job as a janitor. He wouldn’t have “starred” in a failed film. He wouldn’t have twitter followers. And he wouldn’t make the news unless he shot up a 7-11. And an attitude like his shows the exact kind of disregard of the future that leads to people being broke, hopeless and wondering how it all went wrong. That's nothing to be proud of.

The boy genius continues... “All The Rules In This World Were Made By Someone No Smarter Than You. So Make Your Own.”

Bzzzzz. False. I can assure you, Jaden, that everyone who made the rules is smarter than you. In fact, let me point out that it’s not even intelligence that is needed to make rules, it’s experience. Rules are made to regulate human conduct based on prior experience. Sometimes, rules are made by idiotic bureaucrats (though Jaden probably likes those rules), but usually they are the result of generations of humans observing how other humans act. That means rules are based on an understanding of cause and effect, an idea that clearly eludes Jaden.

Finally, we get to the main point. After telling us that “education is rebellion” (whatever that means) and that school is the tool used to “brainwash the youth” and that newborn babies are “the most intelligent beings” on the planet, idiot boy declares:

“If Everybody In The World Dropped Out Of School We Would Have A Much More Intelligent Society.”

Oh boy. This is painfully stupid. Does Jaden actually think that the people who designed his car, his phone, or the power station that gives him electricity could have done that without education? Does he really want a doctor who never went to school? I doubt it. And even if his assumption was correct that you could develop these skills without school, would we really want that? For one thing, think of the waste as every engineer would need to invent engineering himself before he could do something. How long would that take and what are the chances he gets it all right? Seriously, why reinvent the wheel over and over and over when someone else can explain it to you? Oh wait... that would be “brainwashing.” //rolls eyes Moreover, how does society know it can trust this self-taught engineer? Not only do we have no way to know what he did or did not do to further his training, but who would be qualified to judge? Essentially, Jaden’s moronotopia is a world where we need to take everyone’s claims about their own abilities at face value and then pray that the guy wasn’t lying when he said he knew how to build a bridge, or a car, or operate on a patient.

Anyway, I wouldn’t care about the ramblings of a moronic child of privilege if it weren’t for the fact that so many wannabe “populists” keep sending this same message. Indeed, you get this message all the time in a steady drumbeat of opposition to education: education doesn’t make you smart, real life experience makes you smart! Educated people are elitists and elitists are bad! Teachers are incompetent and schools are nothing but indoctrination centers for commie-libs/capitalist pigs! Most people shouldn’t even go to college! And so on.

This is bunk. Education is the key to the future and anyone who tells you otherwise is lying... or a moron. And if you want proof, consider this. According to the Census Bureau, here are the mean incomes by education level:

$20,241 Learned everything he needed to know in kindergarten
$30,627 High School Grad
$32,295 Some college
$39,771 College grad
$56,665 Bachelor’s Degree
$73,738 Master’s Degree
$103,054 Doctorate Degree
$127,803 Professional Degree

So one of those elitist professional types earns six times what a proud populist earns each year, and over a fifty year career will earn $5.3 million more. Even someone with just a generic college degree will earn almost a million more than the proud populist who didn’t need no education.

And it doesn’t stop there. There was a new report the other day about the effect of the recent recession on different income groups and it showed what we’ve always known: the better educated you are, the safer you are from economic shocks. Consider these facts:

● The unemployment rate for low-skill/low-income workers in the US right now is 21%. That is about the same level as the unemployment rate at the worst parts of the Great Depression. However, the unemployment rate for high-skill/high-income workers in the US right now is 3.2%. That is below the level that economists traditionally consider “full employment.” That means there are more jobs than workers at that level and those workers have power to bid up things like income.

In effect, it’s boom times for the well-educated and depression for the unskilled. Yet, the populists want you to join the ranks of the unskilled. Don't fall for that.

● It gets worse. As jobs vanish during a recession, higher skilled workers who lose their jobs take lower skilled jobs and in the process push out lower skilled workers. Economists call this “bumping down” or “crowding out.” What this means is anytime there is an economic shock, the higher-skilled workers will land on their feet one way or another – either by getting their jobs back or a comparable one, or by taking one from the unskilled. The unskilled can do nothing about this. This happens in every downturn.

There is no doubt about the statistics. If you don’t get an education, then your hopes of making good money are limited, your chance of getting a job is much lower than for others, and you will be sacrificed in every recession... unless your father is Will Smith. That’s a big price to pay for just being able to claim false moral superiority.