According to the pure signaling model, education raises income by making you look more productive. A worker gets more education; their productivity stays the same, but their income goes up. A nation gets more education; its productivity and income stay the same. The personal and national effects diverge because signaling is a rat race. Only one worker can look like the Best Worker in the Country, and only 25% can look like the Best 25%. If signaling is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, education is a path to individual prosperity and national stagnation: education fails to
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