On consistency

A hypothetical conversation with a feminist professor:

Me: Do you think the high price of college is justified by the financial return people get from it these days?
Femprof: What a ridiculous question. People shouldn’t go to college just to make money. They should go to become enlightened, to enrich their lives. If they can make more money, that’s just a nice bonus.
Me: That seems like an awful lot to charge people for a result they could arguably get just as well for free by going to church for free or at least for much less at a good used book store.
Femprof: Your notion that enlightenment can be had at church is adorable. And I think we both know people don’t have the training or diligence to read effectively on their own.
Me: Well, you’re probably right about the laziness problem. But are you really saying that education is about self-development and not earning potential?
Femprof: Of course.
Me: So you can’t measure its value in economic terms alone?
Femprof: Quite right.
Me: But don’t you also say that women who get a degree and then become mere homemakers are squandering their educations because they don’t use them to make money? It seems like they’re doing exactly what you advocate, becoming better humans and therefore better wives and mothers.
Femprof: But what sort of a fool would pay so much to gain enlightenment from us and then choose to not earn money with it, instead doing the one thing we consistently say is beneath her dignity as a person?
Me: That’s a pretty good question.