Blue Collars, Cap & Gown

A new “crisis” in capitalist social organization has begun to command the attention of scholars and commentators—the much-discussed problem of “overeducation” in America—a problem that one necessarily approaches with some caution. For decades now, liberal intellectuals have looked to education as the universal solution to social ills: more education would break the vicious cycle of poverty, elevate the masses from their state of ignorance, sharpen their talents, provide equal opportunity for all. Measured against the full spectrum of human needs, “overeducation” is certainly a contradiction in terms, suggesting, wrongly, that people can somehow learn more or know more than they need to.

Stil...