The misconception of education as a means of making money, and of economic productivity as a mean of social well being

The misconception of education as a means of making money,
and of economic productivity as a mean of social well being

Nipawin - Friday, January 25, 2002 - by: Mario deSantis

education and productivity
Our way of thinking needs to be changed altogether, and this has been a recurring understanding as we write our thoughts in Ensign and as we continue to learn. Yesterday and this morning I have been drawn by two misunderstood concepts, one of the role of education, and the other one of the role of the so called productivity. While education is easily understood as naturally associated with the process of learning and acquiring knowledge within our social context, the concept of a country's productivity is instead artificially associated with the doctrine of the Free Market.

learning a natural process
It was only few days ago that Timothy Shire, publisher of Ensign, emphasized education as the opportunity to prepare individuals to think critically, creatively and inspire life long learning; and therefore he objected strongly to the current educational philosophy to focus on the demand of commerce and provide widespread testing programs to maintain standards in reading, mathematics and grammar. We go to school and we bring into the classroom what we were born with along with our own experiences. We learn as we relate with our teachers, with our classmates, and as we reflect on our overall experiences. Therefore, learning is fundamentally a natural process and work is in this respect a natural extension of our educational learning.

profit motive?

However we have a big problem in Canada as our free marketeers have infiltrated every corner of our society, including education and now health. Our provincial premiers met in Vancouver yesterday and they discussed the predicament of Health Care in Canada. Ralph Klein presented his plan for the renewal of health care in Alberta and in defending privatization he equated the concept of enriching health care as the doctors enrich themselves. Klein stated

"that's why they go to school for many, many years, so their earning power can increase... I mean, how do doctors buy their big houses?"

How can we go on with Klein's mind set I really don't know.

GDP
Another big problem of our time is the concept of a country's productivity as a measure of its well being. Productivity is generally defined by neoclassical leadership as average GDP per worker per hour. Now you, readers, just tell me what kind of significance this definition has as it makes reference to an average, as it make reference to the biased measure of GDP, as it doesn't make reference to full employment. Our neoclassical leadership have gone so far as to describe economic growth and productivity growth since the Middle Ages.

Canada and US not different
Anyhow, there is no doubt that Canada has lagged behind many developed countries in its economic and productivity growth in the last some thirty years. Economist Fred McMahon is the last pundit to have identified the fall of the Canadian dollar versus the American dollar as correlated to our low economic productivity. It is my understanding that our Canadian economy is not much different from the American one, in the sense that we use similar technologies, services and manufacturing processes. Therefore, at the micro level, our relative problem of economic growth is not one of productivity. As a consequence, the average productivity number is not a good explanation of our being economically behind the United States.

wider gap
I have a more direct explanation for our being behind the United States. I have recently talked of our decadent democracy due to our corporatist society, that is a society where individual rights have been suffocated for the selfish interest of competing groups, that is governmental agencies, businesses, professional bodies, charities, other non-profit organizations. The economic philosophy of the Free Market of making money with money is the same in the United States as in Canada, however it is my understanding that the United States is more of a corporate economy than Canada, and this explains the fact that Canada has lagged economically behind the United States, and the fact that Canada has not experienced a wider gap between the rich and the poor as the United States.

corporatism
Our economic and social predicament is therefore not to be focused on productivity, but rather to the continual erosion of democracy because of the effects of corporatism due to both corporate businesses and the management of non profit organizations.

-----------------References:

Pertinent articles in Ensign

Doctors stung by Alta Premier Klein's 'only for profit' comments, Judy Monchuk, January 24, 2002, Canadian Press http://www.canada.com/regina/story.asp?id={82EDBBCD-E037-415A-93D6-D1B00212544C}

The Argentina of the north, Fred McMahon, January 24, 2002, National Post http://www.nationalpost.com/home/story.html?f=/stories/20020124/1224074.html



The misconception of education as a means of making money, and of economic productivity as a mean of social well being

Nipawin - Friday, January 25, 2002 - by: Mario deSantis

`education and productivity`	Our way of thinking needs to be changed altogether, and this has been a recurring understanding as we write our thoughts in *Ensign* and as we continue to learn. Yesterday and this morning I have been drawn by two misunderstood concepts, one of the role of education, and the other one of the role of the so called productivity. While education is easily understood as naturally associated with the process of learning and acquiring knowledge within our social context, the concept of a country's productivity is instead artificially associated with the doctrine of the Free Market.

`learning a natural process`	It was only few days ago that Timothy Shire, publisher of *Ensign*, emphasized education as the opportunity to prepare individuals to think critically, creatively and inspire life long learning; and therefore he objected strongly to the current educational philosophy to focus on the demand of commerce and provide widespread testing programs to maintain standards in reading, mathematics and grammar. We go to school and we bring into the classroom what we were born with along with our own experiences. We learn as we relate with our teachers, with our classmates, and as we reflect on our overall experiences. Therefore, learning is fundamentally a natural process and work is in this respect a natural extension of our educational learning.

`profit motive?`	However we have a big problem in Canada as our free marketeers have infiltrated every corner of our society, including education and now health. Our provincial premiers met in Vancouver yesterday and they discussed the predicament of Health Care in Canada. Ralph Klein presented his plan for the renewal of health care in Alberta and in defending privatization he equated the concept of enriching health care as the doctors enrich themselves. Klein stated `"that's why they go to school for many, many years, so their earning power can increase... I mean, how do doctors buy their big houses?"` How can we go on with Klein's mind set I really don't know.

`GDP`	Another big problem of our time is the concept of a country's productivity as a measure of its well being. Productivity is generally defined by neoclassical leadership as average GDP per worker per hour. Now you, readers, just tell me what kind of significance this definition has as it makes reference to an average, as it make reference to the biased measure of GDP, as it doesn't make reference to full employment. Our neoclassical leadership have gone so far as to describe economic growth and productivity growth since the Middle Ages.

`Canada and US not different`	Anyhow, there is no doubt that Canada has lagged behind many developed countries in its economic and productivity growth in the last some thirty years. Economist Fred McMahon is the last pundit to have identified the fall of the Canadian dollar versus the American dollar as correlated to our low economic productivity. It is my understanding that our Canadian economy is not much different from the American one, in the sense that we use similar technologies, services and manufacturing processes. Therefore, at the micro level, our relative problem of economic growth is not one of productivity. As a consequence, the average productivity number is not a good explanation of our being economically behind the United States.

`wider gap`	I have a more direct explanation for our being behind the United States. I have recently talked of our decadent democracy due to our corporatist society, that is a society where individual rights have been suffocated for the selfish interest of competing groups, that is governmental agencies, businesses, professional bodies, charities, other non-profit organizations. The economic philosophy of the Free Market of making money with money is the same in the United States as in Canada, however it is my understanding that the United States is more of a corporate economy than Canada, and this explains the fact that Canada has lagged economically behind the United States, and the fact that Canada has not experienced a wider gap between the rich and the poor as the United States.

`corporatism`	Our economic and social predicament is therefore not to be focused on productivity, but rather to the continual erosion of democracy because of the effects of corporatism due to both corporate businesses and the management of non profit organizations.

-----------------References:

	Pertinent articles in *Ensign*

	Doctors stung by Alta Premier Klein's 'only for profit' comments, Judy Monchuk, January 24, 2002, Canadian Press http://www.canada.com/regina/story.asp?id={82EDBBCD-E037-415A-93D6-D1B00212544C}

	The Argentina of the north, Fred McMahon, January 24, 2002, National Post http://www.nationalpost.com/home/story.html?f=/stories/20020124/1224074.html