Education as Commodity – The Source of Alienation, Essay Example

Under the conditions of uncertainty and transition, people often look for explanation of what the reason might be. They are driven by the necessity to know and understand. Nowadays, the most controversial question posed to our lifestyle is what went wrong in our capitalist and Western life style that we had to face the global economic crisis and subsequent recession. From the point of the young generation, the question can be posed in a bit different manner, what we should do in order to succeed in the unstable and unpredictable environment, where traditional ways of development do not always guarantee a success. The aim of this essay is to apply Marx’s alienation theory to the situation of contemporary American students. In this regard, attention shall be paid to the correlation between higher education, job crisis and subsequent place of student debts in it.

Although traditionally higher education is aimed at provision of students with more opportunities of success and subsequent higher place in the social hierarchy, or to pursue one’s dream of becoming a specialist in a certain field; nowadays, the problem became more economic and financial rather than the matter of self-estimation and finding one’s place in life. Just Marx’ laborer is alienated from his labor, so is a student alienated from his final result of all the efforts of long-termed education – job. In this regard, it is crucial to understand that it is no longer knowledge that is advertised in the universities which attracts students; it is a promise of successful ticket to a better life, which is achieved through only one thing – a high-salary job. In this context, the first phase of alienation is the substitution of the knowledge which higher education was initially aimed for with a paper diploma as a lucky ticket for a successful life. Thus, it is no longer the diversity and depth of knowledge matters but what is actually written on that paper, and whether it corresponds to criteria of the target job description. It used to be quite often that diplomas from specific universities were required for a specific job. Thus, this kind of alienation might correspond to Marx’s first form of alienation, meaning alienation from the produced product.

Looking on the issue from strictly financial and economic perspectives, it can be argued that students lost their personification with the final result of their work, when education became a commodity and instead of being means of providing basics for common prosperity through educated and intelligent members of society, it became a means of making a profit. Just as surplus was the reason for barter and further development of economic relations, initial intelligence and talent for specific disciplines were the driving motives for one’s entering the university. In this regard, money became evaluating criterion for admission and subsequent future of an individual. On the other hand, it is not even the evaluation of education in terms of money equivalent that contributes to students’ alienation, but rather lack of means themselves which create the gap between final product (diploma leading to job) and immediate reality.

In the last five years, the rate of an average student loan debt has increased to 30 percent, estimating $23,829; more than half of student loans payment is in delay status (White). In this context, although students played by the rules imposed by market, they are left without anything. The problem is that although they agreed to take a loan and pay for education in order to get a desired job, the existing economic situation is that there are not enough jobs for those seeking them.  30 percent of graduates are not likely to find any jobs after graduation, and 40 percent are likely to be employed on under-rated position (White). From the point of alienation theory, students become alienated from the final product of their efforts – job, due to the inconsistency between the money value of what they have paid for their education and final value of their diploma in terms of compatibility on the job market. As Marx argues:

“The alienation of the worker in his product means not only that his labor becomes an object, an external existence, but that it exists outside him, independently, as something alien to him, and that it becomes a power on its own confronting him” (Marx 29).

In this context, a student is confronted, not by the amount of his knowledge because it was not what he was paying for, but by the job he initially was aimed to get. Thus, his final product confronts him in the form of debt which should be paid irrespective of the success of the whole affair or not. In this regard, it should be outlined that higher education has a direct implication to the job crisis and subsequent alienation of students. First of all, it sells students the most desired degrees on the market with the most successful jobs in perspective, but it seldom indicates the level of competition in a certain field. Thus, further on, alienation is worsened when an individual cannot get any job and finds himself unemployed with debt in around $20,000. Secondly, the necessity to pay children’s’ student loans is often one of the main reasons for parents to wait with their retirement, which results in a smaller number of job vacancies available.

Overall, from all mentioned above, it can be concluded that, in terms of Marx’s alienation theory, contemporary American students are alienated in all four forms of alienation. First of all, the initial product of their intellectual work – knowledge was substituted by a degree paving the way to a certain job. Secondly, their knowledge and talents become impersonal, only degree and connections mater on the job market. Thirdly, students are alienated from the human race because, they are incapable of conducting their existence outside the system and their degree is a key for a job and subsequent survival in the market-driven world. Finally, they are alienated from other human beings because they cannot conduct an efficient social life if they do not have means for that.

Works Cited

Marx, Karl. Economic & Philosophic Manuscript of 1844. London: Wider Publications Limited. 2011. Print.

White, M.C. “Student Loan Debt Crisis: How’d We Get Here and What Happens Next” Time, 4 Feb. 2013 Web. 18 March 2013 <http://business.time.com>.