The Professional-Managerial Class Has No Future – by Peter Wei
I came to this via The Browser.
Unlike traditional elites who can pass down family businesses, land, or powerful social networks, the PMC’s [professional-managerial class] only transferable asset is often their earning potential–which must be painstakingly re-earned by their children through similarly grueling educational and professional hurdles. A lawyer cannot simply place his child in a prestigious law firm; the child must go to law school, pass the bar, and climb the corporate hierarchy. A doctor cannot train his child as an apprentice and hand over a medical practice; however much knowledge the child might pick up around the office, he must endure the rituals of medical school, residency, and board certification.
…
Lengthened training is nothing but a wage cut by other means, with the gains going to incumbent institutions – teaching hospitals, biglaw partners, tenured academics.
Which makes me think of:
Subterranean Homesick Blues, Bob Dylan
Oh, get born, keep warm, short pants, romance
Learn to dance, get dressed, get blessed, try to be a success
Please her, please him, buy gifts, don’t steal, don’t lift
Twenty years of schoolin’ and they put you on the day shift
Look out, kid, they keep it all hid
[emphasis added]