Again, I am wondering whether R Lucas’ model can accommodate a circumstance where the cost of acquiring a skill or knowledge—let us say in history or in literature—far outweighs the enhancement this skill or knowledge will bring to future earnings?
I am not only concerned about the kind of society is R Lucas imagining; it is the society that in fact exists. Rather, I am concerned about whether it is only in such a society as this that the models he is deploying hold validity and, therefore, whether the assumptions he is making hold good only because in this society social actors are compelled to act economically.