# What do free-market capitalism's advocates say about the importance of education?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-free-market-capitalisms-advocates-say-about-the-importance-of-education/507315>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [August 22, 2009, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-free-market-capitalisms-advocates-say-about-the-importance-of-education/507315 "2009-08-22T15:44:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 5

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**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\
**Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-free-market-capitalisms-advocates-say-about-the-importance-of-education/507315/81 "2009-09-14T20:22:33Z")

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> [@IdahoMauleMan](#):
>
> \*\* A free marketeer thinks you should not waste money educating the masses. You need to educate enough people to fuel the system. Any more would be a waste of money. If everyone graduated college, a degree would be cheap and meaningless. \*\*
> 
> There.
> 
> I actually think the above statement is a _good_ thing. Do you think it’s a bad thing? Maybe we’ve hit on something here.

How do you decide who gets educated? The free market? Those with the ability and willingness to pay get the education?

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**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\
**Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-free-market-capitalisms-advocates-say-about-the-importance-of-education/507315/82 "2009-09-14T23:26:38Z")

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> [@col\_10022](#):
>
> How do you decide who gets educated? The free market? Those with the ability and willingness to pay get the education?

Our current college education system is relatively free market.

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**Author:** ![IdahoMauleMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/71c47a/32.png) [@IdahoMauleMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IdahoMauleMan)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-free-market-capitalisms-advocates-say-about-the-importance-of-education/507315/83 "2009-09-15T02:51:01Z")

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> [@col\_10022](#):
>
> How do you decide who gets educated? The free market? Those with the ability and willingness to pay get the education?

Jeez, dude.

You don’t even read the previous posts in the same thread before you start firing off questions, do you?

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