Jack Burns Lives!

Education

I enjoyed Hayduke’s recent post about the ruling economist class and invite you to read it if you haven’t already. As I read it, it made me think about all of the people I’ve recently met that have mentioned economics in one way or another. A child majoring n economics. Going back to school to get a second degree in economics. Reading books by economists.

It’s as Hayduke says. There’s some strange obsession with it, as if it moves and dictates what happens in the world. And perhaps to some degree it does, for after all, doesn’t it seem like everything in the world these days revolves around markets, growth and profits?

So it seems. But as is often the case in life, things are not as they seem. When the market closes for the last time, people will finally realize the world is not run by economists. Biology is the big momma. You can have all the spreadsheets and forecasts in the world, but when all is said and done, the earth only has so many resources and every single bit of economic growth man can muster is ultimately depends on resources the earth offers.

Why this insistence that the earth is getting ready to slap humanity, as we often say in the South, upside the head?

We’re ignorant. We can’t change. Even when we act like we’re trying to get our act together, we do stupid shit. Exhibit Number One: the “green” movement. Really nothing more than a way to keep the machine moving and to make more unneeded stuff.

Why are we so ignorant? One reason is education. We’re (humans in general, but especially in the United States) poorly prepared to deal with today, much less the future. We don’t understand how the world really works. How everything is ultimately dependent on biological and geophysical balance and how economics must be bound within that reality, via steady-state, sustainable economic policy. We just don’t get it.

I began to sense back in the ’70′s a shift from liberal arts educations to more business, economics oriented educations. As the world became more enamored with globalization, growth and technology, it seemed to become less concerned with poetry, biology, music, art and history. Parents were terrified of their children becoming liberal arts majors and perpetuated the myth that if you majored in liberal arts, you’d never get a real job and be destined forever to deliver pizzas to your former classmates that supposedly made better choices.

Suddenly, we found ourselves in a bizarre, Blackberried world completely obsessed with money and profit, big houses with multi-car garages and lavish vacations, and no one wanted their little Billy to be ill-equipped to keep up with the Joneses.

According to a Yale Alumni Magazine article, thirty-five years ago, business accounted for 13.6 percent of the nation’s bachelor’s degrees By 2002, that number was just under 22 percent, and by now, I’d be willing to wager it’s over percent. So, more than a quarter of all American bachelor’s degrees are in business.

That doesn’t include economics. When you add that, it’s probably well over percent.

In 2005, The Wall Street Journal published a story that stated the du jour major for undergrads was economics. Some schools are publishing statistics that show the numbers of economics majors doubling, even tripling.

In the same period, students seeking liberal arts educations dropped dramatically. English accounted for almost 8% of degrees in 1971, but sunk to 4% by 2002; history had 5% “back in the day,” but now only represents 2%. Foreign language degrees have also shrunk considerably.

So, this is the state of the state. Obsession with money. Poorly educated young people incapable of making changes, because they don’t understand how the world really works. Their apathy is driven by their ignorance.

You may say “Look at how involved young people are in the upcoming election! They’re fired up for change! Don’t tell me young people don’t know what’s going on, and that they can’t change things. They can!”

No. I’m afraid the vast majority do not. They’re focused on Iraq but don’t really understand the deeper drivers behind the Iraqi situation or why Clinton or Obama will not (can not) change American imperialism. They’re focused on global warming but don’t really understand just how dramatically their lives are going to have to change in order to make a dent in what’s happening with climate change. And they’re too obsessed with side-line issues like abortion or worse yet, American Idol.

Yes, there are a few, a tiny few, learning permaculture. Learning real life skills and eschewing the trappings of what Abbey called syphilization. They’re investing in their lives, not future fortunes. But I fear there are too few of them and too many business and economics obsessed twenty-somethings willing to do whatever it takes for their piece of pie. CPA’s and bean counters. Not enough bean growers.

I’m incredibly more impressed with a bike riding kid that is a craftsman, that can write, sew and grow food than a kid with an bachelors degree in Business from Harvard. In less than twenty years, the Harvard kid may be looking to the first kid for some help.

Comment from Sean - January 28, 2008 at 1:01 pm

Love the last paragraph, and the whole post for that matter. It’s sad, but I think we’re all heading down hill fast. Too much greed and selfishness out there right now…