Topic: Education
Ed Glaesar on Human Capital and Education This person's comment made me chuckle at Economist Glaesar's OpEd on expanding Human Capital in the US.by Jeff Peters
(conservative)
Friday, September 5, 2008
Most people will vote on the economy, some will vote on the War, but Harvard Economist Ed Glaesar will vote on Human Capital. He proposes the usual with government intervention: let's subsidize the supply of education such that we move the market equilibrium to one that is "socially" acceptable.
Woops, actually that is kind of wrong because there is no real market functioning in the education system. It's a government institution that flat out doesn't work, although it may have made some contributions to the growth of our economy since its inception. However, Glaesar doesn't mention in his article whether or not he calls for simply pumping billions more into the currently inefficient bureaucracy.
That's where this shrewd but truthful comment comes in - I'll let it speak for itself:
Ah yes, government to the rescue. Let's create a "Ministry of Human Capital", staff it full of Harvard know-nothings, and start mandating that our society become more equal. When will you Northeast Intelligentsia learn? Do you know that you are the butt of jokes across the nation? You want to fix education? Make univerisities compete with each other like businesses. Strip away their non-profit status and remove ridiculous laws that make building new colleges and universities impossible. Make them compete as businesses - he who offers the best education at the lowest price wins. Watch the cost of a college education plummet overnight - and now everyone has the opportunity to get one. Apply the laws of the free market and supply and demand to universities, and then our society will truly benefit.
As implied, smart people want to fix the worlds problems. Too bad we never realize that we just aren't smart enough to understand the underlying details of human beings.
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Posted By: Christopher Espinal
Date: 2008-09-05 19:52:13
Well....I'm not always as free market....or at least I try to be understanding of efforts to fine tune the economy. Whether or not these efforts work is something I'm still trying to understand.
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