The spoiler, of course, is that it doesn't. Peter Greene explains: "two things are being conflated here. One is that education can help an individual escape poverty. That one makes sense... But the second idea--that education can end poverty as a whole--seems more problematic." An individual can move from a lower-paying job to a higher-paying one, but the lower-paying job is still there, and will still be filled by someone. "If everyone in the country has a masters degree, does McDonalds start paying its burger flippers $20/hour?" And the economy as a whole, despite increasing productivity and economic growth, remains a zero-sum game. Greene writes - and I agree - "My cynical non-economist view is this-- 'education will fix poverty' is an excellent way to absolve all the other players." See also the original post, which has some comments.
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