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# Public Education of Professionals

## Definition

The practice of funding the education of clergy, lawyers, physicians, and other professionals through public or charitable means, which creates an oversupply of practitioners and drives down their earnings below what would prevail if education were funded privately.

## Source Chapter

Book I, Chapter 10

## Context

Smith identifies publicly funded professional education as a policy that creates inequalities by flooding certain professions with candidates willing to work for lower compensation. He argues this practice degrades the quality and remuneration of respected professions like law and medicine, while creating a class of "men of letters" who must write for subsistence.

## Economic Domain

Distribution

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