education

While sitting in a boring lecture, have you ever thought "Am I actually learning something that will be useful to you when you graduate and get a job?" Here's a common question I've been asking my whole life: "WHEN am I going to use this stuff I am learning!?" the following paragraphs are two views on education from my micro-econ book. i find the second idea very interesting...probably because I've thought it before!

1- Human Capital Theory of Education
"Education makes workers more productive." according to this view, increasing education levels for all workers would raise all workers' productivity and thereby their wages.

2- Signaling Theory of Education:

"...schooling has no real productivity benefit, but the worker signals his innate productivity to employers by his willingness to spend years at school...action is being taken not for its intrinsic benefit but because the willingness to take that action conveys private information to someone observing it." basically: "Education is correlated with natural ability." according to this view, education does not enhance productivity, so raising all workers' education levels would not affect wages.

Realistically, the answer is between the two. I personally hope for the second one...because then I won't feel bad for not retaining any information from this last semester! haha, just kidding. [sort of!]