Equality in Learning Means Being Allowed to Learn on Your Own

You want to force people out of jobs -- especially the poor? I know of three ways. And, we're doing all three of them.

1.) Require union membership. 2.) Require licensing. 3.) Require a college degree. (Surprise, surprise --I picked three things you'd never have imagined.)

I didn't say union membership is bad, nor licensing, nor a college degree. I said requiring them is. Or, can be.

Let's take the first one. Union membership is not free. You have to be a member of the union just to get a job? What's up with that? You shouldn't need to be a member of a fraternity just to gain employment. There's not a good reason to limit employment just to those who join an insider group. Equality doesn't work that way. Workers should be hired on basis of their talents, not whether they are members of an exclusive group.

Let's take the second one. Why is it not wise to require too much licensing? Maybe we should make that too much training to get a license. If it were just a matter of studying on your own, passing a test, and getting your license, that would be fine, fair, and without foul play. But, when they are required to submit to hundreds of hours at a haircut school, that cuts out the poor. They can't take six months off from regular employment. 

Now, finally, we come to the college degree. We should be able to see the monster we've created here. Not only do we charge them, we charge them so much they might never be able to pay off their student loans. And, what of the poor? The disadvantaged simply do not have as much access to scholarships and admittance to high-powered colleges. 

Equality. That's the American word for lifting everyone -- including the poor and disadvantaged -- to the same heights of opportunity. 

Instead of requiring a college degree, make it so those who study on their own and learn just as much as the college kids are treated just as well and have the same opportunity for employment. Test them -- that's certainly fine -- but don't demand that they go to your gold-plated school.

It should be noted that each of these three things -- union membership, licensing, and college -- creates an industry that feeds on the workers. In each case, someone comes between the worker and the job and demands a cut. They extract a fee before they let you on your way. They demand a slice of your paycheck before you are even employed.

There is a little bit of a caste system involved here. Yes, the nation is full of rags to riches stories. Millionaires are made out of those who were minions. But, there are many more who don't make their way out of poverty simply because of the obstacles placed in their way.

Equality must feed the poor as quick as it feeds the rich.  A nation's riches should be measured not by how rich the rich are, but by how rich the poorest of poor can become.

When we subject one person to another -- and that is what each of the three things does -- we, in a way, violate the principle of  freedom. You shouldn't need to be subject to a union, or a licensing agency, or a college.