The human-capital concept entails that education is a consumer good, not transformative experience

Evidence

In practice, neoliberals can’t let others contemplate too long that their peculiar brand of freedom is not the realization of any political, human, or cultural telos, but rather the positing of autonomous self-governed entities, all coming naturally equipped with some version of “rationality” and motives of ineffable self-interest, striving to improve their lot in life by engaging in market exchange. It follows from the human-capital concept that education is a consumer good, not a life-transforming experience. — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 168

Categorization

• XREF: Builds directly on the human-capital theory discussed earlier in the book (Gary Becker’s framework). — connects to: Human capital theory originally justified free public education as collective investment — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 250; Human capital extends the concept of physical capital to persons’ skills. — Coleman, SocialCapitalCreation-1988, 67; Education aims to form autonomous citizens, not just skilled workers — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 337 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Human capital theory originally justified free public education as collective investment #qualifies (0.85) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 250
• Human capital extends the concept of physical capital to persons’ skills. #expands (0.80) — Coleman, SocialCapitalCreation-1988, 67
• Education aims to form autonomous citizens, not just skilled workers #contradicts (0.80) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 337
• Higher education now produces skills instead of ideals or emancipation. #corroborates (0.80) — Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition, 359
• Neoliberalism redefined human being itself as human capital. #corroborates (0.80) — Anna Kornbluh, Immediacy, or The Style of Too Late…, 134
• Contemporary homo oeconomicus has become financialized human capital #corroborates (0.75) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 52
• Innovation is redefined as the income of invested human capital #expands (0.75) — Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics, 1206