Why Your Barista Has a Master's Degree

About this episode

The episode discusses the implications of having more graduates than elite jobs, exploring Peter Turchin's theory of elite overproduction and its potential effects on Ireland's political stability.

What happens when a country produces more graduates than it has elite jobs to give them? According to Peter Turchin, the Russian-American thinker behind End Times, that's exactly the moment civilisations start to crack. This week, we get into his theory of "elite overproduction" and ask whether Ireland is staring straight into it. We unpack the stats: most educated population in the EU, master's degrees doubling in 15 years, and nearly one in three graduates working in jobs that don't need a degree. We talk about why the barista with a first-class honours and the barman with an economics master's are not just funny anecdotes, they're leading indicators of political instability. We look at how the public sector is quietly absorbing the overflow that the private sector can't, why AI is about to pour petrol on the fire, and why historically it's not the abject poor who revolt, it's the relatively rich and bitterly disappointed. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

People in this episode

Hosts: David McWilliams, John Davis

Topics covered

• elite overproduction
• political instability
• education
• job market
• AI impact
• civilization theory

Keywords

• graduates
• elite jobs
• political instability
• education statistics
• AI
• civilization
• Ireland

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: End Times

Places: Ireland, EU

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