Michael Sandel on the Working Class

It is unfortunate that many Japanese don’t recognize the value of machi koba, those small urban factories where workers have skills developed over decades, or even generations. But few young Japanese want to succeed to these businesses. 

America has a similar problem: young people don’t want to become members of the working class.

Michael Sandel’s “The Tyranny of Merit” contends that we should stop looking at a four-year college degree, especially from a prestigious college, as essential for success in life. But private and government support of colleges distracts us from economically supporting technical and vocational schools. This hurts America’s economy and pays those without a degree less.

Sandel holds that higher education should help us learn to think about what he calls “the common good”: making society better for everyone. What we can contribute depends on education for everyone, in every field. We may need workers for desk jobs and managers, but we cannot do without firefighters, plumbers, carpenters, small factory workers, farmers, retailers, and cooks.

Society should be based on cultivation of independence of judgment and a sense of how we can contribute to others, not just ambition for personal success. To do this, we need to treat others as equals, because everyone contributes to the welfare of others in some way. We need to recognize the dignity of all kinds of work, because we depend on other people. And if we work for the common good, we earn the respect of others. Surely that is what real success is like.

(259 words)

Michael J. Sandel, “The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good?” (2020)