>it's the result of a society divided by social class
Isn't it really the opposite?
Pre-industrial revolution, most people would be farmers, and they would learn outside of school nearly everything they needed to know.
Today, it's much more common for people to do something different from their parents, and even if college doesn't put you in an elite group, it gives you the freedom to choose from different lifestyles.
I think people may be oblivious to this if they are a few generations removed from their farming ancestors, such that they never knew a living relative who was the first to abandon their traditional life and get educated and go to the city to work.
> Pre-industrial revolution, most people would be farmers, and they would learn outside of school nearly everything they needed to know.
Nothing about society or college was comparable pre-industrial revolution, unless maybe you came from wealth and are comparing the life of aristocracy. What's your inheritance?
> gives you the freedom to choose from different lifestyles
See my previous comment.
> I think people may be oblivious to this if they are a few generations removed from their farming ancestors, such that they never knew a living relative who was the first to abandon their traditional life and get educated and go to the city to work.
Pre-industrial revolution peasants did not "abandon their traditional life" by choice; very far from it. They were forced into industrial centers as common lands were evacuated and commodified to staff the factories. Post-industrial revolution, they were forced by waves of technological change and economic instability. Again, only the very privileged few ever had the luxury of "abandoning traditional life" by choice.
>Nothing about society or college was comparable pre-industrial revolution, unless maybe you came from wealth and are comparing the life of aristocracy. What's your inheritance?
We must be talking past each other.
I was saying that being a farmer, or not being a farmer, but with no more formal education than a typical farmer, was brutal.
People that could've done a hundred things with a college education spent their lives doing back breaking physical labor until they couldn't stand any more.
That is exactly the excuse made by the ruling class for forcing people into the factories. It’s nonsense. We aren’t talking past each other. You are just talking about things you know nothing about.
Isn't it really the opposite?
Pre-industrial revolution, most people would be farmers, and they would learn outside of school nearly everything they needed to know.
Today, it's much more common for people to do something different from their parents, and even if college doesn't put you in an elite group, it gives you the freedom to choose from different lifestyles.
I think people may be oblivious to this if they are a few generations removed from their farming ancestors, such that they never knew a living relative who was the first to abandon their traditional life and get educated and go to the city to work.