Profitability of Qualified-Labour-Power Production.

In Baldino and Cabral (2013) we introduced the concept of qualified labour-power as the commodity produced by the school system. In the present article we outline a quantitative model to evaluate the profit rate of educational programmes. We compare a medical school programme with a teacher education programme at a public university in Brazil, from the point of view of profitability to the wealth of the nation’s labour market and to the individual student. We argue that qualified labour-power is capital and that its owner participates in production in the condition of fixed capital. The general movement of the text points to the commodification of human beings through schooling.