You know what I like best about studying at a slightly older age than the average student? How the content and theory you study makes the world you knew and inhabited till now make SO much sense and suddenly all light bulbs glow

When you are young and study at the age of 18 unfortunately you haven’t read much and seen much of the world for you to be able to apply the complex theory you study into the real world

As a matter of interest and as personal discipline for myself I want to start this tweet series where I want to try and explain a theory and how it applies to the world for my understanding and in the hope that it will be of interest to some of you

Let me start off with the one theory that has been blowing my mind (not positively) – the human capital theory (HCT)

The theory by definition is very simple and the name implies what the theory proposes. That humans are capital and how much you invest in a human being should be proportional to how much you get out of them.

Sounds pretty straightforward at first glance no? Like that’s how things in life work mostly. Your mutual funds, your work, your cooking, your workouts, your travel, etc. The amount of effort/time/money you put into it, you hope to get equivalent returns

But the HCT is not that simple because well human beings are humans and not investments or workouts. What HCT says is that given a choice between investing in two humans, HCT would prefer to invest in the human who will give you better, larger economic returns to the country

Specifically, HCT’s main claim is that the more you learn, the more you earn and that attainment of education is directly proportional to economic growth a country makes and hence a country should invest in educating its masses.

Sounds good. But HCT has many caveats about who it thinks should be getting this investment in education because obviously money and resources are not infinite especially in a country like India to invest in educating ALL its masses.

Let me explain with an analogy. Say you’re betting on horses. You know there are 3 horses which are excellent and hardworking and strong and much better than the other horses. But you also know that these 3 horses have to run through many more obstacles than the other horses

As a bettor would you put your money on the 3 horses and say I will talk to officials and get the obstacles removed and make sure the race course is fair and equally challenging for everyone. Let me get petitions signed for this and work hard to give those horses a fair chance

Or would you say ‘bah. Who’s got time?Just going to bet on this other horse doing reasonably well, has normal obstacles to face and has better chances of winning than these other 3’. Of course you are going to go with option 2 because you want to win right? And not be crusader?

This is EXACTLY how the HCT works and how the government in most countries in the world work and it repeatedly ignore structural dimensions of injustice. Keep this analogy in mind as you are reading through this thread

So, who is the first group of people that HCT fucks over? The disabled and people with special needs/learning difficulties (PSN).As per the HCT the disabled and PSN are a burden to the economy and investment in them and their education is futile because of the low rates of return

So given a choice between building ramps, investing in special needs educators, counsellors and making the learning experience more conducive to the disabled and building IITs where more people who will contribute to the economy can study, governments choose the latter.

Let’s go back to the horse racing analogy. Given a choice between removing obstacles for the disabled and investing in their education and well-being and get returns in the long term; and investing in the other mediocre horses, HCT ALWAYS chooses the latter

The next group of people that HCT fucks over are women. For obvious reasons, HCT sees no point in investing in women. Most women do most of the unpaid labour, they get educated but because of gendered norms, serve interests of the family and are not part of the labour force

Women do not contribute to the economy and labour market because of patriarchal structures and considerations and again going back to the racing analogy, HCT chooses to invest in people who do not have the obstacles set up by patriarchy rather than dismantling these structures

It’s the reason many parents in India do not invest in the education of their daughter and choose to send their sons to private schools and not their daughters. What is she going to do with all that education when she is only going to sit at home and take care of the family?

It's also the reason feminists are screaming from rooftops that the unpaid labour women do should be included in calculating GDP because maybe then countries will take notice?

Ok, who next? HCT sees no point in investing in the inclusion of LGBTQIA. Again obvious. This group faces the maximum discrimination and hence are unproductive at as per HCT. While investing in their inclusion will have returns in the long term, governments mostly don’t care

I am sure you are sensing a pattern here. Think about the oppressed, the poor, the down-trodden, the marginalised in any country and if they are living in a country with a capitalist government which follows the HCT, chances are they are getting fucked over

Blacks, indigenous people, poor people, the old, disabled, women, LGBTs, people will special needs, people with learning difficulties – HCT says screw you to them ALL

Next coming to higher education. Ever wondered why the government has invested so much in building IITs and IIMs but there is only one JNU which also proponents of HCT and capitalism want to shut down/impose exorbitant fees on?

Because obviously if you go to an IIT and an IIM your chances of contributing to the economy of the country are FAR more than if you go to a JNU and study arts or natural sciences. And HCT doesn’t see the point in investing in degrees that don’t have returns to the nation

Because for governments and HCT we are all worker ants. Who must work tirelessly for the economy of the country (and your own economic status) without critical thought or application and if you do criticise then you must be anti-national

HCT is the reason we have millions of useless engineers and MBAs in this country who have been fed the spiel that if you get a B.E and an MBA it’s a ticket to your success (pssst, country’s success and economy)

HCT doesn’t understand the point of someone studying a B.A History or a degree in French or even pursuing your PhD if it doesn’t lead to returns for the economy. So if you were forced into doing B.E/MBA and hated it, then blame HCT.

In fact, HCT dominates education policy SO much that education is now associated ONLY with higher earning and the only reason people should get educated should be to increase their (and the country’s) economic status (Worker Ants)

Anyone who wishes to pursue a degree for personal interest, fulfilment, joy, passion or just joy of learning is looked down upon as per the HCT because IF YOUR DEGREE IS NOT GOING TO HELP YOU EARN MONEY, WHAT IS THE POINT (as per HCT)?

Most capitalist economies work like this. They invest in people that will give them the maximum returns to the economy in the short term. So, who are these people? Straight men of course. And who propounded the theory? STRAIGHT WHITE MEN OF COURSE

The HCT which dominates all policy needs to go. These theories were developed in wealthy countries by people who came from privileged circumstances who had ALL their rights accorded to them and never had to struggle for basic rights

So of course, when people have the privilege of having their basic rights, are wealthy and privileged, what do they choose to do? To expand their wealth and make a show of contributing to the country’s economy.

But what about when you face structural dimension of injustice and oppression and have your basic rights snatched from you? The HCT makes NO sense and in fact keeps the structures of injustice intact for its own benefit

If I have the patience and time, I will write about the Human Capabilities theory proposed by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum as an alternative to the HCT and is quite an elegant theory I really like. Also Sen’s writing is