Wednesday, June 03, 2015

School is No Longer Conducive to Human Biology

A funny exercise I like to run your average endebted American through is the nearly impossible time-line the American labor market forces on its employees in terms of education vs. retirement.

You are supposed to:

Go to k-12 from the ages of 5-18, then...

Attend college from the ages of 18-22, but...

Today's modern economy demands some form of progressive credentialism, so a bachelors degree no longer cuts it.  So you need at LEAST two more years of schooling or certification...22-24, however...

Even with all that education, the labor market is flooded with poorly-financial-planning baby boomers who can't retire and millions of other recent college graduates desperate for work, so you work crappy, low paying jobs "earning your stripes" and "proving yourself" doing work you could have done at the age of 13.  You never make any real money to significantly pay down your student loans, so at least 5 more years wandering in this job-desert before your now-2 decades of education *might* be put to work...24-29, STILL...

You're an American!  You gotta keep up with the Jonses!  And not just in housing, but cars, McMansions and other crap you don't need can't afford.  So you sign away your life on a 30 year mortgage...29-59.

Did you promise your kid's you'd pay for their equally worthless Masters in Puppetry Degree, taking out a home equity line to pay for it?...59-64

And so NOW, at the age of 64 you decide it's time to "get serious" about retirement planning, except, OOPS!  That's right, the patently INSANE demands of the labor market in terms of education and certification (combined with vanity-induced debts) make it nearly impossible for you to ever successfully and mathematically retire. 

But whereas this fun little exercise is one of finance and investing, there's another ENTIRELY different aspect of life that is now quickly being made impossible by progressive credentialism and arrogantly-demanding employers - human biology.

You see, for the human race to continue on, we need to breed.  And in order to breed successfully, mothers and fathers need to be earning the resources necessary to raise and support children DURING THEIR MOST FERTILE YEARS.  Biologically speaking, this means anytime from puberty (12/13) to the late 30's (for women).  However, while biology says we "can" start breeding at 13, society through historical trial and error has developed the wisdom to know that you shouldn't.  And so now we wait until we're at least 18.

This "optimal age" for breeding was at its pinnacle during those (hated and evil) 40's and 50's.  Young men and women would graduate from high school, land a job here or there, and within a few short years of dating and courting, start marrying and having children while still thoroughly ensconced in their 20's.  Women were optimally healthy to be birthing children.  Men strong enough to toil at the factory.  And both young enough to have the energy needed to tend to the children on very little sleep.

But keep in mind this was possible because a young men and women could graduate from high school and find gainful employment.  And not just gainful employment, but enough employment that you could raise a family on just one person's income (albeit a tight budget).

Still, the point is that the educational system and the labor market adhered to this biological reality.  You would not only be educated adequately to perform a job, but there were jobs available (and high paid enough) that you could go and support a family while in your most fertile years.

But today a similar clash between education and biology is forming as is the clash between education and retirement.  Employers and the labor market are demanding more and more education, to the point it's starting to "push out" the ability to have families.

Simply look at the similar demands mentioned above in terms of family planning:

K-12 is spent learning how to hate capitalism and white males instead of learning skills.

Since you didn't learn anything of employable value in K-12, you need to learn it all over again in college, (plus women are heavily lobbied to eschew families and husbands).

But today you don't graduate when you're 22.  It's more like 23 or 24 after your "studying abroad," taking a year off to "find yourself," or heck, just taking a year off so you can afford the next year of tuition.

So you do your obligatory 2 additional years of getting a masters or certifications (because no employer will touch you otherwise) and you're finally deemed "employable" by our employer overlords at the not-so-young age of 26.

Of course, keep in mind just because you're employable doesn't mean you'll actually find a job.  Remember that labor market sucks for young people.  And you've likely accrued at least $40,000 in student loans.  So even if you're lucky and land that $38,000/year job with (giggity!) benefits, your average 26 year old man is having NO thoughts of marriage, let alone kids.  Which is alright, because nearly every woman in his age bracket is so obsessed about their careers they're deaf to the "tick tick tick" that biology is futilely screaming at them.

So everybody slaves away, slowing chipping away at their insurmountable student loans, and with pure, 110% corporate stooge dedication (and "continuing education" of course), and a 2 hour daily commute, our 20 something heroes finally pay off their student loans and earn enough now to consider, maybe, potentially starting a family.

Just one problem - they're all 34.

Now this is fine according to feminist math.  Which, if I understand correctly means, women will earn their doctorate at 28, completing a total of 23 years of schooling, all so they could work a whopping 6 years, before finding their future husband in the 4 months, 2 weeks and 5 day window that remains before their bone-dry eggs ensure an 83% chance their child has Down Syndrome.

But if you don't believe in "feminist math" (and most sane people don't) the reality is that it's more or less too late.  Demands for an absurd and unnecessary amount of education, combined with:

Usurious tuition rates
Crippling student loans
Anti-family propaganda, and
A lousy labor market

is quickly making it impossible to form and start families in the US.

But here is the rub.

What you have are two massive and unmovable forces heading towards each other.  Human biology on one hand and human socio-psychology and politics on the other.  Human biology is not going to change, and our economic and social structures we've created are not going to change either.  People will want to have families, but they're not going to because society, the labor market, academia, and American employers have made it financially and time-wise impossible to.  So there will be a lot of late marriages and a lot of sex, but a lot of birth control, and thus a lot of childless families.  The two massive forces will essentially neutralize each other out.  Our population will decline, but corporate America as well as Academia will have no new bodies to sell their wares to in the future.

Or won't they?

For you see, all of the above hinges on one important, but highly flawed premise.  That every person is responsible and will wait until they are financially sound enough to have kids and WON'T if they can't.

This, as we all well know, is simply not true.

For you see there is another group of people who do not wait until they pay off their student loans to start a family.  A group of people who don't bother breaking out an Excel spreadsheet to see if children are in the budget.  A group of people who just spread their legs or don't wear condoms "cause it feels good."  A group of people who don't bother worrying about whether they can support and afford their own children.

Government subsidized families.

By definition if you can't afford your children and take a government check, you are a government subsidized family.  You need other people's money to support your family because you (frankly) made a stupid mistake, didn't care about the best interests of...well...anyone, and have no moral qualms about being a parasite.  And it is this group of people that will continue to breed.

Alas, I'm no fortune teller (well, actually, yes I am), but if I had to put money on it I would say these are the makings of a culture that is hell-bent on becoming an "Idiocracy."

Which makes you wonder if it's even worth bringing children into this world at all.

Enjoy the decline!
*****************************************
If you wish to help the Captain make sure he can keep writing and never has to go back to working a banking job ever again, please consider purchasing something through his Amazon Affiliate account.  Besides which, he can't go back to the working world even if he wanted to.  Nobody would hire him as that's the price for writing the truth.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Attitude is everything.

Life is cruel and is quite capable of kicking you in the nuts viciously and repeatedly.

We live in a free society and everything you choose to do, (or not do) is your own choice.

You can choose to accumulate massive debt studying Mickey Mouse programs, endlessly, and end up unemployable.

Or you can choose to study something that is in demand that leads to a tangible career. You can even, gasp, work part time and not accumulate debt and finish school without accumulating giant loans.

Both of my children graduated college with 0 debt, and walked into $100K+ jobs. They stayed at home for 1 year after school and saved their money and bought their own homes by the age of 23. The boy rented out the rooms in his house to help pay down the mortgage and will pay off his home in 5 years.

Cause that's how, you know, Capitalism works.

Anonymous said...

Yup,

Long before you start saving money for your own kids, you pay for someone else's. Get some single mother's kid set up with toys, clothes and food and THEN you can start putting aside some money for your OWN kid, but not before. First some brown kid somewhere gets a Tonka truck, new jeans, KFC, ice cream sandwiches with your money. See what's left, stick it in the piggy bank for your kid. Fuck it.

Anonymous said...

Speaking as a divorced father with a worthless degree living with his parents for now becuase of the child support payments and a dead end job.


Yes in the end it's worth it. As you noted in the article, for the human race to continue on, we need to breed. The only way to reverse the damage inflicted is to raise the next generation better and to get them to undermine the false prophets and idols that lead to a non-productive life.

Fuck the decline
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

sth_txs said...

Some of us guys did it all wrong.

Get girl while in school. Buy house. Never marry girl but have kids with her. Rent house to her under section 8 and use parent's address as permanent mailing address. Girl/woman qualifies for all these juicy government benefits for free school, free med for kids, etc. Live with girl at house owned by you while getting Section 8 vouchers to help her pay rent.

Unknown said...

One false premise: that our socio-economic structures are not going to change. Just a bit earlier, you mentioned how things are different than they were in the 40s and 50s. Obviously change is possible. The question is: Will the trends we've seen over the last few generations continue on their same course, or if not, what are the most likely scenarios for change?

Note that change rarely happens according to plan. The idea that some concerted, conscious effort will bring us back to a sane system is, well, let's just say it would be unprecedented. What is a lot more likely is the strain between social systems and things like REALITY and BUDGETS grows too large to continue. One will end up being subordinate to the other.

We see a lot of naive kids out "following their dreams" without running the numbers, or trusting in advice about college, homeownership, and such that may have been sound advice in previous generations but is meaningless now that the underlying factors for those decisions have changed so much.

Others, realizing Elvis has left the building, are going to go find new ways of doing things. So far, the people who do are going at it as individuals, and it's still far from the mainstream. Eventually, more people are going to realize the ostrich strategy isn't working. What's currently a community of outcasts is going to be a lot bigger, and probably before not to long. What that transformation will look like, I can't say. Too many factors, not enough data.

I would be interested in taking a look at similar situations throughout history. Mainstream Western institutions are going through a crisis of legitimacy. It's not the first time it's happened. I'm reminded of the senile aristocrats of France who led the mobs into the French revolution. That didn't end well for anyone. From what I know of French history, the French culture before the Terror was a whole lot less barbaric and desperate than ours is now.

It's yet to be seen if enough people get into their cultural and economic lifeboats before the ship goes down.

What those lifeboats will be is anyone's guess. Again, too many factors, not enough data. But imagining that our decrepit institutions won't topple over seems unfounded, and it's good to remember that desperate people rarely do logical, wise things.

Robert What? said...

Very prescient article. It's almost like this whole horror show has been planned. The question is, who benefits the most?

Anonymous said...

What did they do to walk into 100k jobs?

Anonymous said...

They need us to breed. For a man with a wife and children is a good slave.

Mike said...

Having children is economic insanity.

Anonymous said...

@Anonymous 337pm

Linux/Unix System Administrators get paid big bucks. Especially if you have your competent papers. A lot of the work can be done remote too. I got my foot in the door teaching myself in my spare time without formal credentials. I now have an entry level job where I end up being a technician to users of our SaaS. Sure the pays crap by Cappy standards, but its more than Ive ever made before. A lot of times I even get to teach baby boomers and Gen-Xers about the systems they are supposed to be experts on. The best part is most of the problems you run into repeat themselves so everything you need is a copy and paste away.

Anonymous said...

The biggest giveaway that mass public education is a West destroying fraud since 1848, is that it won't let the brighter kids graduate faster, even if they are absolutely capable of it. The average PHD (IQ 130) should have graduated high school at 15, and real geniuses (IQ 160) at 12. Being forced into school for too long reduces their fertility, but the "free daycare" element of school enhances the underclass fertility.

People are becoming stupider since 1848, and substantially more violent too. The artwork of the West began to look distorted by the 1870's, and it gets worse in every generation since.

A serious education reform would see PHD graduates get their degrees and jobs 6-8 years earlier, and they could have more money and children. But, the PHD demographic is the Outer Party, and they're the cuckold tools who allow themselves to be sacrificed for the prole revolution.

Tucanae Services said...

Well I teach technical topics, but I have to say the say we are doing it these days is wrong. I did not go for my masters till I had 10yrs industry experience. All that theory they pitch sounds good till it hits the wall of reality.

But we have not seen anything yet. There is an outfit in SF that has built a machine that can make 350 unique hamburgers/hr, custom order. McDonalds has implemented self order kiosks in europe and are trialing them here. Last I checked 0hrs x $15/hr = $0 pay. Self driving trucks are coming to an industry that employs 3m people long haul alone, possibly 6m total. A computerized AI anesthesiologist is being tested.

The point is pretty soon all that training will be for naught. Why spend some 10-12yrs of post secondary training when by the time you get thru with it you are obsolete? 4 year IT graduates are nearly half useless at the pace of change in that industry right now. Should the pace of change double again, what they learn as freshman will be useless and half of what they learned as a senior will be as well.

Anonymous said...

There's a couple things that went unmentioned in this article:

1. Who set up society this way, which is a can of worms I won't open...

2. What about the depopulation dilemma? We are breeding 'runts' as the tips of our DNA are shaved down every generation due to the enriched/fortified processed foods we consume, not to mention vaccination/sterilization and sterilizing GMOs (corn, soy). In several generations the vast majority of people whose great-grandparents lived on processed foods will be unable to have children.

Anonymous said...

No need for Americans to breed. The Mexicans will do it for us.

Happiness is Living to See your Grandchildren said...

Captain, your analysis was correct until your final conclusion, the typical reactionary's reaction to those government-sponsored families as parasite.

Let us compare:
"Responsible" families never form per the reasons you stated. Responsible really means "obedient to external influences".

"Parasite" families form according to nature and acquire resources by any available means. "Parasite" means "not playing by the rules".

Families are an expression of DNA: breeding, legacy, genealogy, lines, heritage, posterity, issue, The Future.

Resources are merely a means to the end of survival.

Responsible families play by "the (artificial) rules" ... and die.

Parasite families play by Mother Nature's rules ... and survive.

Who's the fool now? Becky Super Woman the Doggy Mommy or Queen Latisha and her actual, if state-subsidized, actual human children?

Unknown said...

I'm just happy I have my capitalist, exploitative slave job. You are supposed to say this because any other attitude about being a slave lands you in a homeless shelter. Yay capitalism.. And fuck having kids. The Indians and Chinese are doing everyone's reproduction for them. And capitalists are more than happy to pay for it in outsourced labor.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.