As a college professor, all I can say is ... right on!

I teach one of the hard subjects (Computer Science) that enables people to make money without mooching off of the government. But the sociologists and other pseudo-scientists run the university. For example, if you take a close look at any "general education" course, you'll see that it's nothing more than thinly veiled, politically correct, victimization, environmentalist, left-wing garbage. Btw, this is at least part of the reason why most foreign students prefer to come to the U.S. for advanced degrees---they can avoid almost all of those silly classes and instead focus on a real subject.

Many of those undereducated, misguided liberals who have an unrealistic world view are now the mainstay in the Dept. of Education and all of american acadamia.

Several observations:

Every time more money is thrown at education tuition rates go up. Always, no exception.

Instead of trying to retain foreign graduates with superior degrees for positions here, liberals are more concerned with giving free passes to illegals. My guess is for future votes from just another ignorant source.

Just as in any government entity, costs soar, bloated unions and wasteful spending is the norm. The Dept. of Education has become a liability and is doing a huge disservice to America.

The Universitys are pumping out indoctrinated usefull idiots that are the footsoldiers of the Obamanation. With advanced degrees in womens studies, gender studies, sociology, education, and other _______studies, these useless cretins demand the production of those with real knowledge that actually contribute to society. They occupy, consume what others produce, lay waste to the occupied site, and wallow in their own filth. This is the base of the Democrat Party. This is the collection of idiocy that are the main stream media. This is what Hollywood champions. These are the marxist statist progressives. They are treasonous criminals, jail them, don't vote for them.

A recent commenter on my blog complained bitterly that she had two masters’ degrees and was ABD for a doctorate in Social Work and couldn’t get a job. I pointed out that no amount of hope and change could repeal the law of supply and demand, that if there were ten people with social work degrees for every job, nine were going to be unemployed. But the universities are happy, because the useless degrees are funded by the government through student loans. Every student should be required to read Dr. Sowell’s great books “Applied Economics” and “Basic Economics” and pass a test on them to graduate from college. Or to hold public office. I will link to this from my Old Jarhead blog.

Robert A. Hall

Author: The Coming Collapse of the American Republic

All royalties go to help wounded veterans

For a free PDF of my book, write tartanmarine(at)gmail.com

Well said Mr. Sowell,

If you give everyone in America a million dollars, we would all be Millionaires. But a loaf of bread would cost $10,000.00!

If you ensure everyone gets a BA, then the value of the BA will decrease.

But everyone with a BA will expect a high-paying, white-collar, desk job. Who then will collect the trash, fix my plumbing, pave the roads, harvest the crops?

Illegal immigrants I suppose.

Saint Peter, Master of Aeronautical Science (and employed in that field).

"Giving" education and degrees to people who haven't earned them does nothing for anybody. When I hire somebody with a degree I expect him to know something about his field and be able to produce and make money for me (to pay his wages). If he doesn't have a work ethic, or his degree was a 'gimmee out of guilt,' I lose money when I hire him.

Enough of those and all the people I employ who really do know what they are doing and do it find themselves out of work too when I have to close the doors. It's not just lack of production or sales that can break a company. Excessive suits over faulty product can break a company too, even when they've proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that only one person was responsible, and that person, though holding a degree, was for all intents and purposes illiterate and only hired to meet minority requirements.

Amen Dr. Sowell!

I guess I was smarter than a fifth grader (unlike many in college today) when, in the early 70's my blue collar, very hard working parents of 5 children sent me and my older sister to Sussex, England to study at USIU. She had a full scholarship from their sister college in HI. We were there about 6 weeks and found there was no curriculum--- the entire body of study was to be "independent learning" under the "guidance" of a professor. HUH? We were to create our own courses! At 18 and 19 years old, children of a rather good public education in western NY, we didn't have a clue what to do except to save Mom and Dad some money and return home.

I always had a desire to be a veterinarian so, on my own dime, I enrolled in a CA state university for my undergrad work. 4.0 and Dean's list almost every semester. Heavy advanced biology, chemistry, physics and no lala land courses for me. Then I found out, of the thirteen vet schools in the country, I could apply ONLY to the one "serving" my state. (This was 1973!) I couldn't shotgun my apps to all like you could for med school! I also learned from many practicing vets that good ol' gubmint had a strong grip on the schools; if I declared my wish to practice small animal medicine and/or they found I weighed only 95 lbs, my chances were greatly diminished because the USDA wanted meat inspectors! The only "push" might be if I could get a glowing recommendation from a US Senator or maybe a Federal Judge. I found I liked the business of animal medicine and the secondary caring just fine so college wasn't going to do me a bit of good. I quit in my third year and never looked back.

I went on to be a great salesperson in Consumer Electronics and then launched myself into a lucrative real estate career that spanned over 20 years. Again, I never looked back.

Same with my sons: Our eldest wanted to run/build/design data centers since he worked in them from 15 Y.O. He got his four year specific degree and contributed greatly to the costs including being an RA for 3 years and running the University data center and teaching prof's how to teach! He is immensely successful even though college taught him very, very little. Our youngest had no specific ideas of what he wished to do nor did he have the drive to learn. He did not go to college. It would have been a waste of years he could have used more wisely.

Bottom line: Dr. Sowell is ALWAYS right when he says college really isn't for everyone. Until that mindset changes, the colleges will continue to feed on the young and their parents while raising tuition again and again. Student loans ought to be considered only for those who demonstrate something more than the ability to steam a mirror and get a high school diploma.

So we're mass producing bureaucrats... Excellent.

First let me say I have a Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering and a Masters in Civil Engineering, so what I say may be biased, but I don't think so. In Strength of Materials, Thermodynamics, Fluid Mechanics, Heat Transfer, Systems Analysis, etc. there is only one correct answer. In the bovine manure courses, it is what you feel good about. Which bridge would you rather cross, one designed by someone who feels good about math or someone that can solve simultaneous equations?

Merry - I know what you are talking about as my daughter is a DVM (for those that have a liberal arts degree that is a veterinarian).

Howard

""...(for those that have a liberal arts degree that is a veterinarian)."

Love it!

Wow, Professor, your subtleness is quite impressive. Remarkable, in fact. Thank you so much for this series of articles.

Someone should translate this into Yiddish and send it to the White House Occupier. His educational background is softer than his un-American stance toward Israel, so soft, in fact, that upon reading he would melt into an amorphous puddle. His hard-line socialist shell is all that keeps him standing.

Maybe he will write a rebuttal. Oops, I forgot. He doesn't write, because his ivy-league educators taught him well that "never put anything in writing" is the most important lesson that a political criminal can ever learn.