Patrik D Posted August 20, 2013 Posted August 20, 2013 I’ve reached a point in my life where I’m trying to work out a path forward in life. I’m 24 years old, born and raised in Sweden.Educational backgroundFor the last two years I’ve been studying economics at the undergraduate level at a university in Sweden. The reason for this was that I initially wanted to engage in politics to change the system. I wanted to be able to contribute to the debate in economic/overall policy and provide research and statistics to support the libertarian/voluntaryist cause. My expectations of the quality and the methodology of the educational material were never really high and I knew that I would have to withstand some pseudo-scientific elements during the course of my education. But it turned out to be far worse than I expected. One doctoral candidate took notice of my briefcase from the Ludwig von Mises Institute and told me that he thought that the Austrian methodology was superior to the methodology used by most economists but also told me that the Austrian methodology was unlikely to find any widespread support amongst professors and other economists because the implementation of Austrian methodology would render many of them unemployed. During the course in public economics/finance the professor stated that she was insulted by a comment made by a student wherein he stated that any valid measure of value is impossible in the public sector due to the coercive nature of the transaction (the personal stakes/interests for the professor in these matters makes rational analysis impossible in this situation). It has become ever more evident to me that one of the core purposes of the publicly funded and approved education in economics is to find semi-sophisticated excuses for government force and intervention and a lot of obstacles for anyone daring to claim otherwise. It got increasingly hard for me to pass exams in courses based on faulty methodology combined with mathematical and statistical methods which seemed to increasingly lack relevance for a true study of human action. After failing 7 out of 8 courses in a year I’ve decided to take a break and probably change the path forward for me. I would still enjoy the increased awareness that could be provided by studying economics but this awareness will not be realized through studies at my university. I’m quite confident that I will be able to reach this awareness through self-studies in Austrian economics with some help from the Ludwig von Mises Institute. Thoughts on future education or human capital accumulation I’ve also come to realize that a focus on personal development, self-knowledge and personal relationships will do far more to improve society and the cause of peaceful interactions. Following this path I would primarily work on my own self-knowledge and my own personal relationships. I’ve been thinking about studying psychology or something similar to eventually be able to support others with their self-knowledge and personal relationships. However, I don’t know really where to start. If I were to work with people in this field I would most of all prefer to work with parents and children at an early stage. But I don’t know if there is any demand or market for this. The most interesting case that comes to mind would be to work with people thinking about having a child and support them in their thoughts about parenting/child raising. But perhaps I’m looking on this from the wrong angle. Maybe it would be better and more realistic to work with people individually with self-knowledge as a psychotherapist or something of that sort. One concern I have regarding this topic is that the government authorities would try to intervene if I were to advice people in some way that went counter to the approved goals and methods of the government if I were to work as a licensed psychotherapist for example. What are your thoughts on this subject? Is it possible to work/find work in this area (I would like to help people in similar ways as Stef is doing but with more in depth application to specific cases like talk therapy. I think Stef is doing a phenomenal work but I don’t think that podcasts is the right format for me and I think that this area would profit from some division of labor)? Should I pursue formal education? If so, should it be mostly in psychology, behavioral science, sociology, social work or something else? If not, what should I do alternatively to accumulate the human capital necessary to provide some real value in this area? Do you think that my concerns regarding government intervention in my practice is valid? If so, what should I do to make the best of it given this environment? Strategic relocation As long as I can remember I’ve felt an unsettling and frustrating lack of control over my own life and elements of my surroundings that I feel I should be able to control to some degree. I’ve been bossed around and told what to do in school for 12 of my formative years only to find myself steadily unemployed and unqualified to do most anything. I can see the very same chaotic symptoms and consequences of forced economic planning in almost any aspect of my life such as healthcare, law enforcement/provision of security, the food industry, the financial industry, building and construction etc.It should be noted that I’m in the process of starting therapy to work on my self-knowledge after several failed attempts to find a therapist that would help me within the public sector. The only therapist I’ve been able to meet within the public sector was the one responsible for an initial assessment of my mental health. After scoring high enough on a standardized test for depression she started talking about medication and when talking about my lack of motivation she asked me about lack of motivation in school when I was young and said that she was scanning for symptoms of ADD. The only treatment available for public funding was a 6-12 session long treatment for certain specific problems. With potential shortcomings in my self-knowledge in mind I would say that the most damaging aspect of my childhood from my perspective would be the time spent in school with many years of forced schooling robbing me of my inner drive and power of initiative (much like Stef's video on procrastination). As noted above I believe that a focus on self-knowledge and personal relationships is the best way to achieve freedom. Peaceful parenting and minimizing abuse is crucial for the formative years of human life. That is why I believe that one of the most important things if I were to ever have a child would be the freedom or ability to raise my child independent of government influence or intervention. Sweden recently became one of the most restricted countries in Europe with regards to educational freedom (Sweden and Germany being the two most restricted in Europe).This is one of the most important reasons why I’m looking for alternative countries/places to live my life as independent of government influence as I can. I would also prefer to live amongst other unschoolers and peaceful parents/people. The United States is one of the places I’ve contemplated. Do you have any thoughts with regards to strategic relocation? Is the US a good alternative or would you suggest another destination?
Patrik D Posted August 20, 2013 Author Posted August 20, 2013 I just want to add that I'd be very interested in reading about people here on the board who find themselves in a similar situation. What strategies have you implemented with regards to education or finding work? Does your current job or potential career path involve working on personal relationships? If so, how did you or how do you plan to reach that goal (education or not? location?)? Have you thought about relocating in order to live more freely or be able to reduce or eliminate abusive elements in your child/children/potential children's environment? Where would that place be?
Patrik D Posted August 22, 2013 Author Posted August 22, 2013 *raises hand* I am contemplating this since midfebruary after reading a book about a German homeschooling family and their struggles against the state. They eventually moved out of Germany. I am currently looking into relocating as well (Austria), but there is too many variables to be prematurely optimistic. I also want to study Pschology, if it works out, at a private university. My intend is also not to become a psychotherapist, but to focus on CouplesMarriageRelationshipPARENTING communication / sex/relationship education for teenagers. My inspiration before finding Stef was actually Family therapist Jesper Juul. As far as state involvement goes, well, its omnipresent, we somehow have to find a way to conform as little as possible while still not making it too hard on ourselves. As far as countries go, I actually made a list for myself, criteria included Homeschooling legality, No Conscription, FUTURE NATIONAL DEBT as % of GDP, peace index rating, stuff like that. Also you could throw in such nice things as climate and water resources. However I might be wrong and I can't make recommendations. That's interesting, I didn't think of conscription laws myself when considering such a list of countries but it is indeed quite important. The best countries with regards to homeschooling from what I've found seems to be Canada, Ireland, UK and USA. I can remove Denmark and Norway from the list because of their conscription laws (they don't have very good laws regarding homeschooling either but it would be geographically and culturally preferable for me because of similarities in language and the close distance to the rest of my family).I've never heard of Jesper Juul before. I did a quick youtube search on him and found a 35 min interview (in three parts) with him named after one of his books Your Competent Child. It was really interesting! This is very close to what I want to focus on in my work and education. Do you recommend any particular book or documentary that features his work? Besides Stef I was really intrigued by Stef's interviews with dr Peter Gray. I'm planning to buy his books Free to learn and Psychology in the near future. In your studies of psychology, do you know what kind of degree you are looking for in the end? I've been searching for information on this topic, it seems to vary from country to country (even from state to state withing the US) but it tend to require a master or a doctoral degree.
LovePrevails Posted August 23, 2013 Posted August 23, 2013 Hi I didn't read the thread because I'm in a rush but here is what I advised another forum member who said he found it useful (One of) "The best methods for increasing your human capital is working a job to learn new skills, and once you think you've learned all the new skills you can learn in that job start applying for other jobs that you will learn other skills on remember you are never going to get all that much cash working for someone else, but a new job always has something to teach you, so choose jobs based on what they can teach you - not the pay if you continue this method you will be able to explain on applications you have learned a very diverse skill set from all your experiences" www.coursera.org also offers a whole range of free courses you can do online a couple hours a week is all it takes and some are very good
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