I feel I understand the real problem to economics, but would like some constructive criticism (long)?

[David Schwarz]

To those whose greatest desire is money in life, your points of view will be fairly noted, but you probably simply will not like this question. In the end, the question is, what do you think of my own point of view?

First, we must understand what drives people. Money... Money has the power to put people into motion and get them to work. However, since we no longer barter nor trade, it is easy to misrepresent the value of many things. People do this, because they want to deceive others into believing that their services are more valuable than someone elses. The most important thing to consider with money, is how much is available to people, how much is needed to keep them in motion, and how restraint is needed in printing to keep it stable. Credit and loans are also a major factor but I will get to that later. I believe where we have the biggest overpaying of money though, is with educated people. The more education a person has, the more money they feel they deserve. Naturally, they must consider an 8 year masters degree worth something, but what is it truly worth in the end? In reality, I have seen a lot of educated professions live with a spirit of humility that says that they truly deep down know that they are way overpaid. The laws of economics are embedded into any intelligent humans subconscious mind and truly shows in our spirit. We always have to consider how much money, services, and goods we get back out of something that we put money into. Some Jobs, pay way less than what the person is probably worth. Jobs such as amusement park employees, food services, sweat shops, backyard mechanics (if they are good), transportation specialists, etc etc... Mostly, the lower middle class, to the upper lower class jobs. The Jobs that benefit the job market and economics the least which are way overpaid are the Jobs generally people who hold a masters degree perform. Lawyers, Doctors, Civil Engineers, Archaeologists, Anthropologists, Actors, Models, Singers etc.. etc.. While these Jobs do support an important function, they don't put a whole lot of money back into the workforce development side of things. A doctor can afford a 5 million dollar home, but a 5 million dollar home might only put a crew of 10 men to work on average for 6 whole months worth of full time jobs. Granted, there are many other jobs associated with the home, from realities, insurance agents, etc... However, 5 million dollars is enough money to cover 125 middle class wages for a whole year too. In building a home it only supports 10-20, with a side benefit of having something with asset value. On the other hand. The things the typical middle class person buys a lot of... Food, shelter, energy, cars, etc... Provides a lot more workforce in the long run. This can go into much deeper detail, with many better examples, but you should be able to paint a picture for yourself as to what I am getting at. The value of an education has been way over rated, in order to keep people desiring to learn.

Next, the even bigger picture with inflating the value of an education is that we show lesser and lesser respect to the views and opinons of those who never been through college. Making a social segregation between us. So we are now segregated not only by money, but also by social standards. It becomes quite hard for a boy living in the ghetto to find true love if that what he truly wants in life because of the image imposed on his surroundings. A simple life style should actually be considered a very righteous thing. People who can live there lives for love, marriage, parenting, and require little to achieve it are far more admirable than most scholars who got wasted drunk and screwed a bunch of sexy college students and then lied to their husbands and wives about it later in life. If they didn't lie about it, then their spirits have probably at least not healed enough to be worthy of any kind of guidance to people who never threw themselves into those temptations, and many doctors JOBS are to give guidance.

I believe, the only people who should rise to great wealth are those in business and development. Any college degree Job should not pay any greater than the highest of the middle class. If they want more, they need to develop and make work. Its a very poor distribution of wealth. Good ideas cannot get out by the people who make them. We charge insane fees for patents, and no beginner inventor is likely to get his feet off the ground. All tools for development such as patents should be very cheap. The wealthy will be those who use their money to make others closer to middle class period. You will however live very well with a college degree. You will live fair. You will receive only a little more than your worth instead of a lot.

Feel free to add. Inspire me. This question is... Can you offer me useful information that works with the state I am currently thinking in?

[Bored Gremlin]

not reading the whole rant but a few points:

1. Patents fees are a few hundreds of dollars:
http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/qs/o...100512.htm
So an average person can definitely afford to file a patent.

2. Education is becoming more important b/c of technological progress. People without high-school degree became an ignorable minority over the past century, people without college degree will become the same in this century.

3. Family and parenting are only justified if you do (and your children will) produce more than you consume. Otherwise you are just breeding leeches on society.

4. Wage is an accurate measure of the value of person's labor to society. If customers are willing to pay enough for whatever the person does, it must be important for them. If nobody cares to pay for something, then why should be pay somebody to do it? If that something benefits society as a whole (like military protection or clean environment), we tell our elected politicians to spend our tax money on it.

5. If you try to artificially lower prices of housing, you get non-economic competition, which is equally ugly. Rent control in New York is a best example of that.

[simplicitus]

Wow. Have you got it all wrong.

You mean all those people getting masters and doctorate degrees in classical music and philosophy, etc. are doing it for the money and not for the love of the subject? If so, they must all be insane.

What about those school teachers - are they expecting high salaries in spite of plenty of data to the contrary?
http://www1.salary.com/Teacher-Elementar...alary.html
They clearly don't contribute anything to the economy.

And if you think Civil Engineers are overpaid and "don't put a whole lot of money back into the workforce development side of things" think about what life would be like without:

- water and sewer distribution infrastructure
- roads, bridges, tunnels, etc.
- building taller than a few stories
- power plants and hydro-electric dams for generating electricity
etc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_engineering

And if you think most models, actors, and singers have masters degrees, you are deluded.

As for useful information: "garbage in, garbage out"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garbage_in,_garbage_out
You are starting with garbage, and so the result is ...