Q: When is progress not progressive,
and reform not part of a reformation?
A: When you're only streamlining the death machine.
Recall that device in Kafka's penal colony -- if you produce a microprocessor-controlled Mark II, is that progress? Or is it progress if you reform the post-torture procedures by applying quick-healing unguents to the scrimshaw?
To me, this is what publicly-funded citizen "skill" upgrading amounts to. Since they can't control the compensation, any increased skill supply only lowers the compensation for the skill. How this settles out will vary some from sector to sector, but a fair chunk will end up as increased corporate earnings -- and to complete the loop, we jobsters pay for this passthrough to the profiteers with our payroll taxes.
