There has been a long debate about how today’s system of education was created to produce conformity and “no objection” to what the centralized government wants.
For a nation like the United States with huge student debt, it appears that the education system does not fulfill its intended promise. Bitcoiners at the Bitcoin 2023 Miami event are of the opinion that Bitcoin as a technology will fix the ideology of today’s education system.
Corey DeAngelis, Senior Fellow at the American Federation for Children and a guest at the event, said that the Prussian system of education, which was brought to the US to create “obedient factory workers” has not improved despite a 152-fold increase in financial resources since 1970. He noted that the problem is that the entire education system “isn’t about education; it’s about indoctrination.”
Saifedean Ammous, the author of The Bitcoin Standard and The Fiat Standard, said that the problem of the education system as well as health and the economy is that a few people have control over what happens and how operations are carried out in all of these sectors. “A small sector of society can make money without having to work for it whereas all the rest of us have to work for it.”
This creates uncontrollable influence and power over the majority of the population. “That means that they can shape things like the education system,” he said.
Most of these institutions, such as the Central Bank and education, are considered “free,” but in essence, the user has become the product. Therefore, today, we have “the centralization of money and the money going into the hands of the government.”
Reckless printing of money and education
Saifedean noted that the reality in the US, where funds allocated to the education sector are used for the agendas of the government, can be broken if the power to print money is taken away from the government. This will also take away the power of the government over how the education system should run.
He added that the problem of student debt is a sign that the system is not functional again and that students are forced to learn irrelevant knowledge in public schools while the money is spent by authorities without accountability. If the government loses the power to print money, parents will be forced to “take more charge of their children’s education.”
“I think Bitcoin is going to bring more and more personal responsibility into the process of education,” Saifedean said. The flexibility Bitcoin gives can be reproduced in the education sector, allowing students to choose what they want to study and how they are educated, including the homeschooling method that is becoming popular in the US. “If you’re getting educated for free, you are the product.”
The need for alternative forms of education
Corey believes that the government school system is a monopoly that has no incentive to cater to the needs of individual families. He added that this is because families are forced to send their children to government schools through compulsory property taxes and residential assignments.
As a result, underperforming government schools continue to receive funding, while underperforming private schools are forced to close.
The speaker also noted that the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the problems with the government school system. He pointed out that many government schools remained closed for extended periods during the pandemic, while private schools and homeschooling options remained open. As a result, many families have chosen to leave the government school system altogether.
Corey said that the only way to fix the government school system is to give parents more choices, prevent the government from controlling the school curriculum, and enact laws to control private schooling.
He suggested that this could be done by giving parents vouchers that they can use to send their children to private schools or home-school them.
Saifedean believes that the current education system is inefficient and expensive. He argued that private schools are often cheaper than public schools, even though they provide a better education.
The speaker also believes that Bitcoin could be used to improve the education system by giving parents more control over how their children’s education is funded.
Skills above credential
Saifedean noted that the reason people attend universities and “learn all kinds of irrelevant garbage” after four years while leaving with student debts is because “they’re not the consumer; they are the product.”
He advised that employers should focus on skills and not on degrees that applicants have and that there are several educational contents that students can learn online.
Corey also advised that universities should be defunded as it is not useful for taxpayers to pay $20,0000 per student to learn materials that are irrelevant in life. “Your kids don’t belong to the government. They should not be indoctrinated there for 13 years of their lives; you have the power to do so” using the Education Savings Accounts.
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