Written by Emmanuel Yaafi 

When supply exceeds demand, the price of goods or services falls.

If human beings are considered resources, such as natural resources, we would know that those human beings who have skills and knowledge which are more scarce in the world would be more valuable (financially), whereas those whose knowledge and skills are very easy to find in large quantities, their economic value will be less. At the moment, with the massification of university degrees, the supply of university graduates far exceeds demand. Graduates are an overly supplied resources today. Our value fluctuates according to the market and the country. Given the global-scale educationalization, our value is doomed to decrease as the number of university graduates increases. Because of this oversupply, the price (economic) of human resources gets lower, and this resource may even be wasted (thrown away after use), since it can be found in such abundance.

A metaphor might help picture more clearly what will happen to all these graduates. What happens with the oversupply of food? In the markets, to keep prices low, there is overproduction of food. The supply of food is higher than the demand for it (at least in the developed world). The result is that half of the food in the supermarkets gets thrown away. The big multinational corporations do not care about it because they have calculated their profits, even including such a large waste. The supermarkets have no choice because they keep on ordering new stuff every day, and they have to remove the old one (even if it is good). So half of the good, perfectly edible vegetables, bread, and other goods get trashed every day. Imagine: you, dear graduate student, one day may be like one of those good vegetables in the rubbish bin that is being thrown away as waste or surplus. Unemployed because nobody bought you… There were cheaper, better-quality graduates on the market.  Trashing graduates is a byproduct of the capitalist system.

The problem is that human beings are not objects, natural resources, or products. And the inflation of their value leads to an inflation of their salary, and the waste of their resources means dismissal from employment at any time… their salary, their existence, and that of their families depend on it.

The underpayment, exploitation, and redundancy of the oversupply of graduates make their lives extremely unstable and at risk of severe poverty or death. This is not exactly what graduates are promised when they enroll in university. It has been shown that a considerable percentage of graduates have been disappointed and disillusioned to discover that their degree is actually worth little more than nothing. Many students, according to the EU Strategy 2020, are disgruntled, disenchanted, and disengaged due to issues including the value of their degree after graduation.

Further, the fuel of this illusion that having a degree would open access to high-paying jobs is like believing in Santa Claus. A lie that society keeps on repeating to young adults before and during their college years. Which then disappears as soon as they have accumulated the debt for paying tuition fees. University education is a business and a big one, of course. Students are customers and, eventually, victims.

We are exploited. For an agenda that is not ours, with no or little chance to change it. We will see global injustices without seeing any global impact of our attempts to reduce them. We will give up our social relationships and families for survival. The system is organized to maximise profit, at the expense of everything else. Including our lives.

The war we fight against each other to get jobs, internships, or university admissions cannot but benefit the system. We have to realize that the system is consuming us, and say NO. This is not progress. So many people toiling for the enjoyment of a few. Collective struggle is necessary to change this.