Thread by @StrikeDebt

This is an important article that gives us all a chance to learn about human capital theory and how it is some bullshit.
currentaffairs.org/2019/09/cancel…

Human capital is the idea that the "value of labor is connected to what that labor produces. If you can produce things of high value, but you’re not getting paid an amount that reflects that high value, you’ll go produce value for someone who will pay you more."

Through competition between employers, wages should supposedly approximate the 'value' of labor as measured by what that labor produces. And the value of an individual’s labor—again, linked to the value of what they can produce....

"And the value of an individual’s labor—again, linked to the value of what they can produce—is their own personal human capital. If you learn new and valuable skills, you therefore increase your 'human capital.'"

"We didn’t always view education this way....Starting in the late 1960s, Congress, the DOE, and eventually many state governments decided to stop treating higher education as a public good."

"Instead, it was reimagined as a mechanism by which students acquire the skills necessary to increase their earnings in the labor market, which is to say, their human capital."

Human capital theory had the idea to "make sure everyone takes on student debt" to pay for skills. "The plan backfired. Instead of creating a more skilled labor force, the US shifted the cost of job training from institutions, states, and employers onto individuals."

So there you have it. You took out debt and that didn't lead to higher wages, which blows up the whole elite intellectual edifice of "human capital theory," which whose theorists are hanging on to for dear life bc they hate to be wrong.

This is why cancelling ALL student debt reduces the racial wealth gap: "The racial wealth gap is largely a story about exactly how much wealth rich people have, and the fact that almost all, if not quite all of them, are white."

We will win a debt jubilee and, no, we won't be paying attention to any economists who yells about that being "regressive." You know what is "regressive?" Some neoclassical economists' brains, that's what.

Thanks @Econ_Marshall

@Econ_Marshall We're starting a new hastag: #neoclassicaleconomistshavebrainworms