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Why the fuck does it cost money to get smarter?? (aussie.zone)
submitted 10 months ago by to c/showerthoughts@lemmy.world
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Stupid ass private education bullshit

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[–] 2 points 10 months ago (2 children)

You are ignoring the systemic effects: a society were everybody is highly educated is a society were everybody can worked in higher value added areas hence the entire society is actually richer.

Even those who are poor in a highly educated society relatively to others in the same society are still better off compared to people in societies which do not invest in Education - even when that society focuses more on quality of life than wealth production, they live much better because of that society's higher productive capabilities.

The biggest difference between the US and most of Europe when it comes to Education is that the former looks at it as a way for individuals to become more competitive in the job market versus other individuals (a perspective also displayed in your posts) whilst the latter sees Education as a strategic investment to raise the productivity of the entire country, often beyond the mere "money making" and into quality of life domains.

Sweden invests in Education because it allows the country to more and better host higher return Economic areas this pulling the country up, whilst in the US beyond a certain point it has to be individuals investing themselves in their own Education purely for their own personal good.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 child)

    I think Sweden has actually become more like America in that regard. Young people are not thinking about the country, they want to get rich quick, just like in America.

    The culture in Sweden is also highly americanized, if thats a word for it... American tv, American social media, American attitudes.

    Everyone realizes that going to work for a corporation as a salary slave is not the way to get rich. Its the same thing in the US with the gen z generation as we have here.

    Sweden is like mini America but with enough socialism that companies cant do what they want, and people have access to laws to protect their jobs to a degree, as well as free healthcare, parental leaves and vacations.

    Also public transport. But America is better for those super high salaries. They hardly exist here.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago

    I've lived in 3 countries in Europe for long periods in the last 3 decades and at least in the last two - Britain and Portugal - also saw the "Americanization" of society.

    This was especially glaring in Portugal as there I was returning from 2 decades abroad, which made more visible the changes to an American model that happened in the meanwhile, including in terms of how people's behaviour has shifted more towards that way of thinking, very similarly to what you're describing for Sweden.

    Even the politics has shifted to American style sleaze talk and even lying - back in the day politicians would resign when caught lying, nowadays that's just Monday morning.

    Personally I find it even more shocking for Portugal since IMHO, Portugal was always culturally more backwards than Northern Europe (specifically in comparison with The Netherlands, were I also lived and hence can compare both countries from personal experience) and American ways are (also IMHO) even more regressive than Portugal in general (at least when it comes to interpersonal relations, where the American way glorifies sociopathic behaviours whilst traditionally the Portuguese way was a lot about taking in account the feelings of others, though also with a big chunk of "what will people think" that moderates acts of screwing up other people directly), though it's a different kind of regressiveness, and the Americanization of Portugal coincides with what by most metrics (such as PP income, inequality, social mobility, quality of life, violent crime) is the country stopping it's progress (that had been going one since Fascism was overthrown in 74) and now going back.

    Again, comparing like to like with The Netherlands (which has gone down a route similar to what you describe for Sweden), I think how bad Americanization was for the various countries in Europe very much depends on how advanced they were in terms of both the wealth of their society and popularity of politicies to benefit the many as a group, hence countries like Portugal have so far suffered more than The Netherlands (and, it seems, Sweden) purelly because of having started this period already well behind those countries.

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