Silagadze: Higher education is a luxury good, not a productivity investment
Mike Silagadze · 20VC: Why Virtually All Companies Hire The Wrong Way, Why EdTech Is The Most Brutal Market & How To Scale Your Sales Team for Engineering Founders with Mike Sliagadze, Founder & CEO @ Top Hat · Mar 16, 2018 · at 20:44
Mike Silagadze, Founder and CEO of edtech company Top Hat, responds to a prompt about what he believes that most people disbelieve.
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“I think many people believe that education is an investment that makes you more productive. In a sense. And I think beyond some of the very basic stuff that you learn in primary school, I don't actually think that's the case. I actually view education as a consumption, as a luxury good. And what I mean by that is causality that people typically ascribe to societies getting wealthier and that, you know, education makes societies more wealthier is in fact reversed. In fact, what happens is as societies become wealthier, they start to be able to afford to give people four years, five years, eight years to develop and explore and just, you know, enjoy life. And learn about different ideas and fields. That's a luxury that people become able to afford after they become sufficiently wealthy. And so I think in a lot of ways, the government investment and, you know, pouring trillions of dollars into education is misplaced as a result because the effect they're trying to get is not the effect that they ultimately end up getting.”
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