Academic

INFLATE THAT HIGHER-ED BUBBLE: ?The best economic policy is one that produces more college graduate?

By Glenn Reynolds

INFLATE THAT HIGHER-ED BUBBLE: “The best economic policy is one that produces more college graduates.”

Another violation of Reynolds’ Law, which reads: “Subsidizing the markers of status doesn?t produce the character traits that result in that status; it undermines them.?

Here’s the original passage:

The government decides to try to increase the middle class by subsidizing things that middle class people have: If middle-class people go to college and own homes, then surely if more people go to college and own homes, we?ll have more middle-class people. But homeownership and college aren?t causes of middle-class status, they?re markers for possessing the kinds of traits ? self-discipline, the ability to defer gratification, etc. ? that let you enter, and stay, in the middle class. Subsidizing the markers doesn?t produce the traits; if anything, it undermines them.

I don’t think Obama grasps this.

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on March 15, 2011 (boomark / email).