Education is the Key to Prosperity

What's the key to prosperity for a country? This is just a random thought after I read Ray Dalio's article on "Why and How Capitalism Needs to be Reformed"

In the article, Ray Dalio talked about how capitalism at its current state is not working for America. One of the key takeaways I get is the importance of education.

In the article, Ray Dalio said,

The income/education/wealth/opportunity gap reinforces the income/education/wealth/opportunity gap

Hence, it is important to channel public funds to the right area to reduce the gap. There are a few ways governments can reduce wealth gap. One way is to raise taxes on the wealthy and redistribute the monies to the poor. But this is bad in at least 2 ways.

First, this cause unhappiness among the wealthy and they might start to move their funds out of the country or find ways to evade tax. Next, there is a reason why the rich are rich and the poor are poor. By redistributing wealth just like this, it is not going to be sustainable. Of course there are some other ways like minimum income, which most of the time doesn't move the needle.

I think the most sustainable way is to ensure equal education opportunities. Keeping education accessible and affordable to everyone is the key to a sustainable path to prosperity.

In Singapore, we are fortunate to have an education system which provides a decent level of academic competence to everyone. You don't have to be extremely wealthy to get through to secondary schools and learn some technical skills from polytechnics. I think that provides a foundation for Singapore to progress further.

I hope Singapore can continue to improve our education system and prepare for the future. We are a small nation and it is essential that we don't screw our education system up. A misstep might mean a lost generation which Singapore can never afford.

What are your thoughts on this? What is your country's education system like?

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