education and poverty

[Shawn McMahon]

On Mon, Mar 27, 2006 at 01:19:03PM +0300, Michael Shigorin said:
> 
> Oh please don't tell me one needs higher education to plant
> potatoes.  I have, but it doesn't really help, you know.

If all one wants to do is plant enough potatoes to feed one's
immediate family, and tremendous wastage of space per person fed isn't
an issue, then you are closer to being correct.

However, if one wants to feed far more than one's immediately family,
and do so in a sustainable way, then at the very least one needs input
from higher education, it not that education for one's self.

There is a reason why every heavy-agricultural community in the US has
one or more "extension offices" from the agriculture-heavy universities
in the state, and there's a reason why those have websites and email
addresses.

Unless you're intending for these areas to stop receiving any input from
the outside world and go back to subsistence agriculture and 35-year
life expectencies, higher education is necessary to make a society that
can sustain the higher effective birth rates and life spans that modern
medicine, modern construction techniques, etc. bring.


-- 
   Shawn McMahon    | Ubuntu: an ancient African word meaning "I am sick
   EIV Consulting   | of compiling Gentoo".
 http://www.eiv.com |                       - Jeff Waugh (paraphrased)
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