Cooking healthier foods and drinking water instead of soda involves not only a financial saving in a family’s monthly budget but also a major saving in medium and long-term healthcare expenses. Buying fresh ingredients and cooking them yourself usually costs less than buying pre-made or canned foods. The habit of cooking as a family, spending time preparing food serves a very important social purpose. The problem is a lot more complex given that obesity, tobacco use, and junk food consumption are closely linked to anxiety and the ecosystem we live in does not make it easier for people who struggle to correct these habits. (47) Our sickly habits translate to sickly bodies.
The pandemic unveiled the health inequalities through the highly skewed mortality rates between high-income and low-income sectors. For instance, in Wisconsin, though African Americans make up 6% of the population, they represented close to 40% of Covid-19 deaths. (48) This is due to African Americans being the group with the highest rates of obesity, (49) diabetes, (50) and high blood pressure. (51) All of these factors exponentially multiply the risk of dying of Covid-19.
THE UNIVERSITY MERITOCRACY
Until the mid-19th century, Argentina was a poor, desolate country, with high rates of illiteracy and constant internal conflicts. But as of 1862 came a series of presidencies that lasted until 1930, which began to focus on the country’s education and development. In 1884 under the presidency of Julio A Roca, a bill was passed into law assuring free, mandatory education for every child in the country. This law, alongside the impulse of university education and good public policies, transformed a poor and chaotic country into one of the richest nations in the world, (52) with one of the lowest rates of illiteracy. (53) The arrival of military governments and populism changed the scenario entirely, turning Argentina into a case study for how a country that was once rich and developed could return to underdevelopment.
As in Argentina, many other countries made primary education free during the second half of the 19th century. In the US, the levels of literacy had been quite high since the 18th century thanks to the Protestants who wanted their congregations to read and study the Bible for themselves. Once the population had learned to read and write, the next step was university education in order to meet the growing demand for professionals required by the 20th-century economy. In many countries around the world, university educations became free and accessible to most of the public in the 20th century. This was the basis for not only economic growth but also social justice and meritocracy.
It made no difference where you were born, if your parents were rich or poor, if your income was low. If you passed the admission exam, you could go to university; and if any expenses were involved, they were reasonable and could be affronted either through state aid, working a job, credit, or family help. University education was the basis for equal opportunities, the tool that allowed those who made an effort to reach the top. In the United States, the universities that had been reinvigorated by the influx of students from different social backgrounds became a central part of the counter-culture movement, which challenged traditional values by supporting causes like the civil rights movement, opposing the Vietnam war, authoritarianism, celebrating sexual freedom, women’s rights, new ways of dressing, and new musical genres like The Beatles and Bob Dylan. It was a place of dreams, inspiration, fear, and discovery. But above all, it was the launching pad for a prosperous professional life, to achieve more than our ancestors, a roadmap to achieving the American Dream.
This ideal of prosperity and meritocracy started to slowly fall apart during the 1990s. University graduates faced a challenging outlook, with fewer available jobs for a growing number of graduates, expensive properties, and a job market demanding constant improvement, forcing people to enter costly postgraduate programs. In Europe and most other countries, university educations are usually free, but in the United States its cost multiplied several times over, with a four-year program in 2018 costing $101,160 in state universities and $203,600 in private institutions. (54)
Why are universities so expensive in the United States? For a host of factors, including limited spots in Ivy League universities in a context of a growing population and a high influx of international students, high salaries for professors who give few hours of weekly lectures, and the high cost of upkeep of their enormous campuses. On the other hand, given than young people acquire debt in order to study and that these loans are guaranteed by the federal government, universities are hardly concerned about costs. This is just another example of a market distortion created by federal government policies. In contrast, European universities are cheaper thanks to more frugal, urban buildings and professors who give more hours of class per week.
There are three problems with the university system. The first is that due to its cost, in many countries, access to the best universities has become a privilege for the rich. According to a study done by The Equality of Opportunity Project, the best American universities (Ivy League institutions like Columbia, Yale, and Harvard) have a higher number of students from families from with top 1% in terms of income than from those from the bottom 60%. (55)
Several factors contribute to this concentration, ranging from their high tuitions to the fact that the admissions system tends to favor the rich because they have more resources to prepare themselves, as well as extracurricular credentials such as internships and volunteer programs. On the other hand, although the last decades have seen an increase in the number of young people who attend university from diverse social backgrounds, there has not been an increase in the number of graduates raised in middle-income and lower-income families. Many of those who are unable to finish university end up with the crippling combination of student debt and no degree. In contrast, the number of university graduates from high-income families has increased considerably.
The second issue with university education is that it is not training enough scientists, mathematicians, nurses, engineers, IT specialists, software developers, therapists, and social workers. All of these professions are in high demand and will be very necessary during the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
The third problem is that companies struggle to hire people trained outside of the traditional university system. There is a bias that assumes that a university education is the only guarantee of quality professional training. However, there are people trained through apprenticeship systems or by doing several short programs and staggering studies with work experience who turn out to be excellent professionals.
According to the OECD, in 2018, 32.3% of young people in Germany between the ages of 25 and 34 had completed university education, opposed to 47% in France and 50% in the US. Germany, however, has one of the most successful job placement systems in the world known as the dual system of vocational training. In this system, people receive training both at learning centers as well as at a company, which allows students to learn as they work. Many young people are later hired by the same company where they were trained. Thanks to this, Germany’s rate of unemployment in young people dropped to under 5.6%, compared to 21% in France and 33% in Spain. (56) This model is gaining popularity among Democrats in the United States (57) and politicians in other parts of the world.
Reassessing the university model, its costs, and the professionals we are training is crucial if we want to recover meritocracy, motivate young people, reduce social unrest, reintegrate those neglected by technological change, and prepare the world for the possibilities of a Fourth Industrial Revolution.
CHARTER SCHOOLS
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