The Case Against Education

1. Education is mostly signaling, not skill-building

Signaling explains why education raises income more than job skills.

Signaling theory posits that education primarily serves as a way for individuals to signal their abilities to potential employers, rather than directly enhancing their skills. This explains the apparent paradox of why education is financially rewarding despite much of the curriculum being irrelevant to most jobs.

• Key aspects of signaling in education:
  • Intelligence: Academic success indicates cognitive ability
  • Work ethic: Completing degrees demonstrates perseverance
  • Conformity: Following educational norms shows ability to fit in

The signaling model suggests that about 80% of education's value in the job market comes from its role in certifying existing traits, while only 20% comes from actual skill development. This explains why employers value degrees even in fields unrelated to the job at hand.

2. The sheepskin effect reveals education's true nature

Graduation years are far more lucrative than stocks.

The sheepskin effect refers to the disproportionate increase in earnings associated with completing a degree, rather than just accumulating years of education. This phenomenon strongly supports the signaling model of education.

• Evidence for the sheepskin effect:
  • High school diploma: Worth about 3.4 years of regular schooling
  • Bachelor's degree: Final year worth about 6.7 times a regular year
  • Similar patterns for advanced degrees

This effect is difficult to explain under the human capital model, which would predict smoother returns to education. However, it aligns perfectly with signaling theory, as completing a degree sends a strong signal about an individual's abilities and conformity to social expectations.

3. Vocational education offers better returns for many

1 > 0: We Need More Vocational Education

Vocational education provides a more direct path to employment for many students, especially those who struggle with or dislike traditional academic subjects. It offers several advantages over the conventional college-prep track:

• Benefits of vocational education:
  • Higher employment rates for graduates
  • Better alignment with actual job market needs
  • Lower dropout rates due to increased engagement
  • Reduced student debt burden

For students who are unlikely to complete a four-year degree, vocational training can provide a more realistic and rewarding path to a stable career. This approach also helps address the mismatch between the skills taught in traditional education and those demanded by employers.

4. Higher education has low social returns despite high private returns

When you calculate education's social return, you should presume signaling's payoff is illusory—because socially speaking, it normally is.

While individuals often benefit financially from pursuing higher education, the social returns of widespread education are much lower. This discrepancy arises because much of education's private value comes from positional advantages that don't translate to societal gains.

• Factors contributing to low social returns:
  • Credential inflation: As more people obtain degrees, their value diminishes
  • Opportunity costs: Time spent in school could be used for productive work
  • Overqualification: Many graduates work in jobs not requiring their level of education

When accounting for these factors, the author estimates that the social return on educational investments is often negative, especially for marginal students. This suggests that society as a whole might benefit from reduced educational subsidies and enrollment.

5. Ability bias inflates the apparent benefits of education

If you compare workers with equal incomes but unequal educations, education has no clear effect on job satisfaction.

Ability bias refers to the fact that more capable individuals tend to pursue more education, making it difficult to isolate the true effect of education on outcomes like income and job satisfaction. This bias leads to an overestimation of education's benefits.

• Ways ability bias manifests:
  • Higher IQ individuals pursue more education and earn more
  • Conscientious people are more likely to complete degrees and succeed in jobs
  • Family background influences both educational attainment and career outcomes

Researchers attempt to correct for ability bias by controlling for factors like IQ, personality traits, and family background. When these corrections are made, the apparent benefits of education often shrink substantially, supporting the signaling model.

6. Credential inflation drives the demand for more education

As education rises, workers—including the poor—need more education to get the same job. Where's the social justice in that?

Credential inflation occurs when the educational requirements for jobs increase over time, without a corresponding increase in the complexity of the work. This phenomenon drives the ever-increasing demand for higher levels of education.

• Effects of credential inflation:
  • Jobs that once required high school diplomas now demand college degrees
  • Master's degrees becoming the new bachelor's in many fields
  • Increased student debt as people pursue more credentials
  • Reduced social mobility as education becomes a larger barrier to entry

This inflationary cycle is self-reinforcing: as more people obtain higher degrees, employers raise their requirements, forcing the next generation to pursue even more education. This process primarily serves a sorting function rather than enhancing productivity.

7. Education fails to foster lasting enlightenment or cultural appreciation

The vast majority of our classmates emerge from years of cultural force-feeding with their aesthetic palates unchanged.

Despite lofty goals of cultivating enlightenment and appreciation for high culture, traditional education largely fails in this mission. Most students do not develop lasting interests in the subjects they study or the cultural works they're exposed to.

• Evidence of education's failure to enlighten:
  • Low adult consumption of high culture (classical music, literature, etc.)
  • Poor retention of historical and scientific knowledge
  • Minimal transfer of critical thinking skills to real-world contexts

This failure suggests that forced exposure to academic subjects and cultural works is ineffective at fostering genuine interest or appreciation. The author argues that self-directed learning, facilitated by resources like the internet, may be more effective at nurturing true enlightenment.

8. The Internet makes traditional education subsidies obsolete

Once everyone can enrich their souls for free, government subsidies for enrichment forfeit their rationale.

The widespread availability of high-quality educational content on the Internet undermines one of the key arguments for public education subsidies: providing access to knowledge and culture. With vast resources freely available online, the need for traditional educational institutions as gatekeepers of knowledge is diminished.

• Advantages of online learning:
  • Free or low-cost access to world-class instructors
  • Flexibility in pace and schedule
  • Diverse range of subjects and perspectives
  • Ability to tailor learning to individual interests and needs

While online education may not replace the credentialing function of traditional institutions in the short term, it does call into question the necessity of massive public investments in education infrastructure and staffing.

9. Separation of school and state is the ideal policy

I favor full separation of school and state.

The author argues for a complete separation of school and state, similar to the separation of church and state. This radical proposal is based on the belief that government involvement in education leads to inefficiency, waste, and the perpetuation of a system that prioritizes signaling over genuine skill development.

• Potential benefits of separation:
  • Increased educational diversity and innovation
  • More efficient allocation of resources based on market demand
  • Reduction in credential inflation
  • Greater focus on practical skills and knowledge

While acknowledging this proposal is politically unfeasible, the author presents it as an ideal to strive towards, arguing that even small steps in this direction could yield significant benefits.

10. Cutting education spending would benefit society

When you calculate education's social return, you should presume signaling's payoff is illusory—because socially speaking, it normally is.

Given the low social returns of education and the prevalence of signaling, the author argues that reducing education spending would benefit society as a whole. This counterintuitive conclusion stems from the idea that much of current educational expenditure is wasteful from a societal perspective.

• Potential benefits of cutting education spending:
  • Reduced tax burden
  • More workers in the labor force, increasing economic output
  • Decreased credential inflation
  • Resources redirected to more productive uses

While this proposal is likely to be unpopular, the author contends that it's necessary to critically examine the true costs and benefits of education to society, rather than relying on feel-good rhetoric about the inherent value of learning.

Last updated: January 25, 2025