yankel> I have a haredi neighbor who has a doctorate in mathematics,
I also know people like that, and most of them have pretty reasonable views. But I want to point out that many such professions require life-long education. In truth, most current white-collar professions require life-long education. So, will the community be able to pick up those jobs?
And we are not talking about just being able to be lawyer for car accidents. Xome of them have to compete on world-wide basis – high-tech economy and everything defense-related. Not just to get a customer, but also to stand to the adversaries. And it is not just time for a person to train, and it is also a time for the community to accept these new developments.
If the community is full of propaganda against anything “modern”, will they be able to stop doing that? If people move into leadership based on such positions, how will they turn around? I hope they will, but it would be good to have a tangible proof of that. So far, those who learned how to interact with the society do it outside of charedim. Negative selection, if you will.
To sum it up, if you want to have observant economy in 2040, you need to start teaching English and math in elementary schools today.