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Why the fuck does it cost money to get smarter??
(aussie.zone)
Because capitalism
It doesn't. It costs money to get the diploma that's proof of your smarts. The Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz didn't actually get a brain, he got a diploma.
My son is a committed cinephile, and has systematically watched nearly every movie ever made, in any country, in any era ( it seems). He's an expert, by anyone's estimation. He just started back to college for a degree in Film Studies, because while he has the knowledge, in order to get a job teaching film, or working in an archive, etc., he needs the degree.
So you aren't buying the knowledge, any person who makes a serious commitment can get the knowledge, you are paying for an organization ( a school) to endorse your knowledge. Kind of a Certificate of Authenticity for your intelligence.
Getting smarter doesn't really cost much. Public libraries exist, go read books and get smarter.
University degrees though... Yeah, those are fucked up.
Or you could emigrate to the EU, where higher education is free.
Or you could emigrate to the EU, where higher education is free.
You're probably not getting into the EU easily without higher education, and they don't educate non-EU citizens for free. Even if you get EU citizenship you will still probably have to pay until you've been resident for X number of years.
Cause people will pay it
Because knowledge is power.
But also it depends. Learn on the job is a thing too in some industries, and in some people can do quite well for themselves here.
It also costs money to make money, if you have a lot of it you can make it work for you and make even more than someone who doesn't have it. This is why kids of rich ass parents get it so easy.
an important rule of capital is that in order to get it, you must have it
The same reason it costs money for food and water. God created both before man. And yet here we are, paying for things we need to survive. Because capitalism is just super.
You don't need to pay for either. Collect and treat your own water from a stream. Go hunting or foraging.
At the end of the day you are paying for the convenience to not have to do that.
Let me just go farm on my apartment balcony or hunt in the local park. Not everyone has access to game lands and a yard.
I guess you're talking about the US.
Well, everything costs money there: education, health, safety... It's capitalist dystopia.
In Australia University used to be free. At some point they realised that Asia is close and has a virtually limitless supply of rich parents who want to pay big money for their kids to be lawyers and doctors.
Education is now one of Australia's main exports.
same in US, most of them seek out international rich students, and you can see how much of these from the middle east and asian coming in with thier expensive cars to campus everyday. at the same time they neglect the rest of the students, so they dont prepare them for thier career track as there is very little resources directing to the departments, just enough to get by so the Professors and staff dont "revolt", they also abuse the adjunct positions to avoid paying them full time, or more benefits, if they can replace all the instructors with masters or BS level educations they would instead of getting PHDs. it all goes to wooeing international students, and sports. stem needs lab work as experience, but its so limited and small most graduating dont even know about it, or its extremely hard to get into. you can tell the university is being cheap if they use overworked professors to do advising.
Formal education isn't for education but for the formal paper. There is so much information on the web, just learn from that. Also, libraries often times have material other than physical books
Formal education can be good for guidance. For learning the "unknown unknowns" as a famous scholar once said. Also, in terms of career, networking is the most important thing. The world is built on nepotism, unfortunately.
It doesn’t.
It takes time and effort to gain more knowledge. It has never been cheaper or more accessible to acquire knowledge than it is today.
To increase your intelligence, is another matter all together.
Thats about certificated stuff from school. Knowledge has never been more accessible than today.
It is wild to me that tuition is SO expensive and quality educational content is SO ubiquitous now. It does take a lot of time, skill, and effort to provide quality educational experiences, but man is it weird that it is simultaneously free and ridiculously overpriced.
University is overpriced, but a degree isn't just saying that you've gained knowledge. Being able to look up and memorize stuff doesn't mean you'll be good employee. if you can't work effectively with a team or tend not to finish a project all the knowledge in the world means nothing.
The most important thing most degrees demonstrate is that you can work for years on a project with multiple milestones involving multiple disciplines, work with others or self-direct, and meet goals.
alot of people fall into the trap of easy degree, like psychology, a studies/arts degree. yea you arnt going anywhere with a psych degree, if your not academically preparing for grad school like PSY-D, or psychology doctorate. i witnessed quite a few people that got a degree, and then complain about it. i had a cousin that did her psych degree properly, she has a PSY-D a while a go.
there is a suggestion going around in other forums,communities, that schools should start holding talks or seminars about different majors, and thier job prospects, but we know they wouldnt, because it would scare people away from these degrees that are money makers and coporations can abuse/exploit low wages for many fields.
Yes, agreed. Definitely value there. I feel like a huge part of university is demonstrating the ability to learn and apply oneself. So many people have success (like myself) in areas that they did not major in.
One thing that I think is actually an argument for big state schools vs private, more expensive lib arts schools is that the big state schools provide you skills in navigating "a System" and that does help when you get into the real world and the damn corporate rat race. Smaller liberal art schools might have more academic competition maybe, but less bureaucratic competition, in many cases. In many cases bureaucratic navigation skills, which are often more valuable in job applicants IRL.
Most impressive are folks that have gathered both the book smarts and the world navigation smarts without the need of higher education institutions and carved their path without going into huge debt or getting carried by rich parents who paid for their degree.
we had a bunch of gifted students in HS, or high performing, i believe we only had 1 gifted per semester/class. they were "paraded around" the school like they were best of the school, while at the same time neglecting the underperfoming struggling students, which is quite a large part of the student body.
our state schools in the wests, apparently were suffering from enrollment deficiencies so they decided to raise tuition (equivalent to dorms), covid exposed unmasked the problem with the schools thats been ongoing before the pandemic. basically people were graduating in the early-mid or late pandemic and they dint learn anything or dint have a chance to get any experience, so they all but criticized the schools, and probably warned thier family hs students away from university.
as of recently the state universities started to enticing hs students of early easier admissions, if they complete these x amount of courses. I dint follow up if the tuition is higher for these students as well. Some students criticized these state school, transferred to a more prestigious university for better opportunities. what universities need to do for stem is increasing the resources for LAB WORK, like make opportunities for more lap spaces,,etc, this is the most important part of a major.
It was never about paying to get smarter. The original purpose of universities/higher education is long gone. It is now about paying to be accepted by high society and indoctrinating you. As Rockefeller said, I want a nation of workers, not thinkers.
There are a lot more quality free learning resources than people realise.
Honestly, there isn't hardly anything you couldn't learn on your own. But what higher education provides is structure. It can be very difficult to actually follow through with the education if you do not have scheduled classes, exams you have to study for, deadlines for projects/exams, etc
depends on the subject, math, engineering, stem need school, plus you cant really do experiments/ or lab work/procedures at home.
One of the reasons some branches of learning are called "disciplines"
The library is free, my dude
Where im from we have libraries and the internet. Now getting job skills. that is a tough one.
I would argue that its rare for education to make you smarter, it mostly makes you more knowlegable.
Knowledge is mostly free though. You can get it from the internet, from the library etc. A lot of what you are paying for is the certification - some places let you just sit the exam I think.
Yuuuup. Piece of paper literally to get a higher paying job. Only says you attended school, doesn't mean you learned anything or built skills there.
Exactly. Smarter doesn't equate well educated.
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*in the US. In Germany a semester at my university costs about 300 Euros and that includes cheaper lunch and a ticket to use all public transport in the whole of Germany.
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Essentially, because it takes labor to create educational material. Unless you own slaves labor isn't free. And in fact with the modern library and Internet access I'd argue self educating is more accessible than ever in history.
Because billionaires have an interest in remaining billionaires, and if everyone was smart, there'd be more people tearing down the structures that consolidate wealth and maintain wealth inequality.
It doesn't.
You need to study to be smart and studying is free.
Private lessons don't make you smarter. They just make you more well equipped with.
I am a lifetime student. I am not smarter. I am not a smarty pant
1 on 1 is definitely more beneficial than 1 teacher to 100+ students.
Depends on the teacher and the conditions. If I can afford either a semester of lectures or a one time two hour personal tuition, I would choose the lecture.
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this post was submitted on 19 Oct 2025
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