Academic Capitalism

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“You didn't get there on your own. I'm always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something – there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there.” (Obama, 2012) How does this quotation relate to the increase of capitalism in the education institution? It has to do with the mentality of what people believe they are entitled to which is for the most part, a libertarian perspective. Libertarianism promotes equality of rights and a free market economy; however, there is a bias in favour for people who happen to have the benefits of arbitrary factors such as a good education or the benefit of coming from an affluent family. Philosopher John Rawls argues, “The natural distribution is neither just nor unjust; nor is it unjust that persons are born into society at some particular position. These are simply natural facts. What is just and unjust is the way that institutions deal with these facts.” (Rawls, 1999: 87) This is contingent on how society decides who gets a higher education as “family income, parental education, and factors such as aspirations and preparation for a post-secondary education are all significant determinants of who goes to post-secondary education.”(Finnie, Mueller, Sweetman, Usher, 2010) This creates a hierarchy of the academic elite. The rise of tuition fees along with credential inflation, contributes to the need to obtain some form of post-secondary schooling, which results in the massification of higher education. Consequently, the switch from an industrial economy to a knowledge economy requires a shift in the political economy from public to private ed...

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