ABSTRACT
Some of the "scientific capitalists" have developed an approach that may be called memetics. It notes that knowledge can be transmitted from one subject to another, and thereby loses its dependence on any single individual. According to Briggs V. M. prior to World War II, agricultural and industrial economies did not require large numbers of highly skilled workers, and as such, there was little need for a theory of human capital. But, Briggs argued, the high-technology economies that emerged in the post–World War II era required massive doses of highly skilled workers. In France and Germany, graduation from a technical or professional school is not only the prerequisite for a position in the industrial or state system; it is, or has been, tantamount to getting a job. Earning a degree from is not equivalent in the world of job-getting or cultural status to the same credential from the Sorbonne or any of the other elite schools in France.
