Does education really lead to employment? Is entrepreneurship the hope for a better tomorrow? Are people unemployed because they are not qualified for jobs?
The answer to all of these questions is “No.”
In his blog entry, “Business, As Usual, Distorts Education”, Professor Steven Klees argues that education does not, in fact, produce employment (http://educationincrisis.net/blog/item/1002-business-as-usual-distorts-education-part-i, http://educationincrisis.net/blog/item/1003-business-as-usual-distorts-education-part-ii). People all around the world in every type of situation- from the elite and middle class to those living in the slums or even refugee camps – believe that they must receive a Western-style education in order to be successful in life. What many of them are finding is that they invest in an education, and end up either unemployed or getting a job at the same level they would have worked had they not gone to school. People are working hard to compete academically so they might have a competitive edge in the workforce. Meanwhile, companies- from large corporations to small businesses are working hard to minimize their expenses, meaning they are avoiding taxes, hiring as few people as possible, paying their employees as little as possible, and giving them as few benefits as they legally (and at times, not so legally) can.
Neoliberalism is not leading to economic growth either on a personal or national level. It is only leading to the economic advancement of large corporations that are not interested in anything but their personal gain. Many people would say this is a failure of the capitalist system. On the contrary, “Poverty is not a failure of our economic system; inequality and poverty are the result of the successful functioning of our economic system” (Klees, “Business as Usual Part 2”, para 6). Capitalism is not set up to share gains with the general population.
Capitalism undermines the authority of a government, instead putting all the responsibility on the market to take care of a country. In the current system, businesses are expected to not only support a country economically, but also hold up education and other public goods through investment and through the hiring of educated citizens. Klees argues that what is needed instead of our current system is, “a large, vibrant public sector that puts limits on the market, that promotes and creates decent employment, that provides for the production of public goods, that develops an adequate and fair system of taxation, that redistributes wealth, not just income, and that is run as a very participatory democracy” (Klees, “Business as Usual Part 2”, para 11). Basically, he is calling for what the United States and UN claim they stand for: equal power and money in the hands of citizens, not just a small group of elites.
Creating such an environment would require a complete transformation of the way the entire world works. This may seem like an impossible task, but the entire world has already changed before when it transformed into the capitalist society we know today. Who’s to say it is not possible to transform it again? In the transformation to what we now know, businesses took the power from governments around the world. The task before us according to Klees is to take that power back and give it to governments in which citizens have a great deal of say.
Such a task is not an easy one. Businesses have succeeded in their goal: to make money and grow in power. How we are meant to take that power away from them is a topic for another time. The first steps are for us to realize that the market system is not improving our lives, and education is not contributing to the market. Then, we need to consider how we can change this system, and who will be actors in this transformation. Leaving behind neoliberalism as the driving force of society is the only way we will see employment and equality in our world.