Degrees, licences, and the hidden economics of gatekeeping, where modern work rewards credentials more than competence, and legitimacy costs years, debt, and permission

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/45695799

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/45529251

👇 https://curmudgeonlycanadian.substack.com/p/the-credential-cartel-how-degrees

The Credential Cartel: How degrees replaced competence — and scarcity replaced skill

Degrees, licences, and the hidden economics of gatekeeping, where modern work rewards credentials more than competence, and legitimacy costs years, debt, and permission

A new essay: The Credential Cartel It explores a question that has become harder to ignore: when did credentials stop being narrow tests of competence and start becoming broad mechanisms of access control?

The piece examines:

degree inflation occupational licensing labour mobility barriers competency vs institutional filtering the productivity costs of over-credentialing

The core argument is not that standards should disappear. It’s that we should be more honest about what many credential requirements are actually doing — and more willing to distinguish real public protection from simple gatekeeping.

If you work in education, hiring, workforce policy, regulated professions, or labour economics, I think you’ll find something here worth debating.

👇 Read Essay: https://curmudgeonlycanadian.substack.com/p/the-credential-cartel-how-degrees

#Credentialism #DegreeInflation #LabourMarket #PublicPolicy #HigherEducation #Gatekeeping #OccupationalLicensing #FutureOfWork #Skills #Competence #LabourMobility #Workforce #Productivity #EducationPolicy #Meritocracy