This paper will provide an outline for what I consider the role of education to be in a capitalist economy. In order to do this, I will consider two essential facets of a capitalist economy and see how they can be seen to be reflected in certain ideas about the nature of education.
Arguably the most important feature of a capitalist economy is the belief in and an actual maintenance of freedom, in particular the freedom of the individual worker and the individual consumer. This has been a vital part of the thinking of capitalism throughout its history, in particular with regard to free-market economics which can be seen to dominate the second half of the 20th century and to provide a vital part of the thinking of modern society. According to this thinking, the best way for capitalism to function is for it to encourage the maximum amount of free choice on the behalf of the consumer and the producer, and the minimum amount of interference from forces such as the state. Not only does this provide the most adequate conditions for buying and selling goods but it can also be seen to actively encourage social security and cohesion. Seminal economist Milton Friedman drew attention to this when he wrote:
Use your promo and get a custom paper on
"The Role of Education in a Capitalist Economy".
‘the great virtue of a free market system is that it does not care what color people are; it does not care what their religion is; it only cares whether they can produce something you want to buy. It is the most effective system we have discovered to enable people who hate one another to deal with one another and help one another.’ (Friedman, 2002. 56)
With this in mind, then it seems clear that one focus of education should be freedom. An individual in a capitalist society should be able to understand the privileges which are afforded to them and the best way to do this would be to allow a high degree of choice in terms of subjects. I would also argue that a significant emphasis on history and on the liberal arts would allow a person to understand the nature of freedom and to respect the ideals which are important to allow a capitalist society to keep functioning and for law and order to stay prevalent and secured.
The second most important tenant of a capitalist education is to allow individuals to enter the labour market and to therefore take part in the producing and consuming of goods and services. Education can help this to happen in two possible ways. Firstly, it can provide vocation training through which individuals may be free to learn specific skills which are needed for an economy, or it may also be able to encourage people to think independently and to act as entrepreneurs. Gary Gutting writes that it is essential for a capitalist country to ‘take its intellectual culture seriously and to do all that it can to cultivate it’ (Gutting, 2011). A strong intellectual and cultural environment helps to lead to happier work force and therefore to more productivity and growth in the economy. It also helps to create a situation in which individuals are able to facilitate growth and innovation. Innovation, both in terms of specific inventions and in terms of aiding developing news of managing people and the economy is essential to any healthy and well functioning capitalist economy.
As such, it can be argued that the cultivation of both trained workers and free-thinking individuals is vital for a capitalist economy and that this should be the prime focus of any education policy and structure. Any thinking of education should focus on this, as well as the cultivation and maintenance of a belief in the unique nature of capitalist freedom as being the most vitally important aspects of education under capitalism.
- Friedman, Milton. Capitalism and Freedom: Fortieth Anniversary Edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002. Print.
- Gutting, Gary. 2011. “What is College For.” The New York Times. Retrieved from: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com
