Connor O'Keeffe on pro-Palestinian student protests and cultural Marxism

The strategic ineptitude of these students can seem almost astounding until you remember what they are being taught at these schools.  Universities like Columbia have gone all in on identity politics and social justice.  A more accurate name would be trait-based collectivized justice.  The dominant historical narrative that permeates almost every department and class curriculum considers the world to mostly have been in balance until white, western Europeans decided to get rich by stealing and expropriating resources from the rest of the world.  Putting aside how economically and historically delusional that is, by framing history as a series of injustices committed by an entire identity group on other identity groups in their entirety, adherents conclude that justice can only be attained on a collective, group level. 

And so, when students see the horrific images and videos coming out of Gaza of mostly brown, mostly Muslim people being blown up, crushed, and starved by white-looking descendants of European immigrants, it seems to fit neatly into their learned worldview.  So even though, in this case, it leads most of them to the correct general conclusion, it shouldn’t be a surprise that an imprecise, historically flawed narrative leads to imprecise, strategically flawed activism.

~ Connor O'Keeffe, "What Campus Protesters and Their Critics Get Right and Wrong," Mises Wire, May 1, 2024

Jeff Deist on college education

Many students leave university with disastrously stupid worldviews - hostile to property, markets, free speech, family, and even civilization itself.  The whole cottage industry of "indentity  studies" is useless and destructive, by design.  These phony courses leave kids dispirited, depressed about the future, and ready to throw away centuries of received wisdom for a progressive blank slate.  Unwitting students graduate meaner, dumber, and older - with de facto degrees in narcissism ("I feel") and nihilism ("I hate").  Talk about opportunity cost!  Paraphrasing Mises, universities are gardens of socialism rather than exciting places for knowledge, ideas, and development.

~ Jeff Deist, Mises Institute fund raising letter, April 20, 2022

Rolf Dobelli on college education and selection bias

Whenever we confuse selection factors with results, we fall prey to what Taleb calls the swimmer’s body illusion. Without this illusion, half of advertising campaigns would not work.  But this bias has to do with more than just the pursuit of chiseled cheekbones and chests.  For example, Harvard has the reputation of being a top university.  Many highly successful people have studied there. Does this mean that Harvard is a good school?  We don’t know.  Perhaps the school is terrible, and it simply recruits the brightest students around.  I experienced this phenomenon at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland.  It is said to be one of the top ten business schools in Europe, but the lessons I received (albeit 25 years ago) were mediocre.  Nevertheless, many of its graduates were successful.  The reason behind this is unknown – perhaps it was due to the climate in the narrow valley or even the cafeteria food.  Most probably, however, is the rigorous selection. 

All over the world, MBA students lure candidates with statistics regarding future income.  This simple calculation is supposed to show that the horrendously high tuition fees pay for themselves over a short period of time.  Many prospective students fall for this approach.  I am not implying that the schools doctor the statistics, but still their statements must not be swallowed wholesale.  Why?  Because those who pursue an MBA are different from those who do not.  The income gap between both groups stems from a multitude of reasons that have nothing to do with the MBA degree itself.  Once again we see the swimmer’s body illusion at work: the factor for selection confused with the result.  So, if you are considering further study, do it for reasons other than a bigger paycheck.

~ Rolf Dobelli, The Art of the Thinking Clearly, Chapter 2: "Does Harvard Make You Smarter?"

Clay Travis on the risks of Covid-19 for college students

What we have in this country is a huge collection of pussy willows: people who don't understand how to assess risk.  Here's an easy assessment: College kids are more likely to die of the seasonal flu than they are of the coronavirus.  Yet we never shut down college campuses for the flu.  They are more likely to die driving in cars to their campuses.  They are more likely to be murdered.  They are more likely to die of a drug overdose.  They are more likely to die from drinking too much alcohol.  They are more likely to die from suicide.  All of those are bigger risk factors for college kids than the coronavirus is.

This represents a monumental failure of American society.  I believe, ultimately, this is going to be looked back on by people with functional brains as the worst decision of American policy since the Vietnam War.

~ Clay Travis, "Mark Cuban is ANGRY about NBA ratings, spring football IDIOCY, MLS booing, MLB silence," YouTube, 5:45 mark, August 13, 2020

Tom Woods defends Walter Block against cries of racism and sexism

By far the most prolific living libertarian is Walter Block, who has written countless books and close to 600 scholarly articles — an accomplishment I am uncertain if any academic in any discipline could match today, or ever.

Walter has also co-authored over 100 scholarly articles with students. That’s unheard of. What an extraordinary advantage that gives Walter’s students over their peers — how many students of other professors can say they published an article in an academic journal while they were undergraduates?

Loyola University, New Orleans, where Walter teaches, must be beaming with pride, right?

Well, a group of students are currently circulating a petition to get Walter fired on the grounds that — you’ll never guess — he is a “racist” and a “sexist.”

This is because, like Walter Williams and Thomas Sowell, Walter Block does not believe that “discrimination” is the universal, no-analysis-necessary explanation for the various disparities between blacks and whites, or men and women. And of course he is quite correct to take that position, since the “discrimination” view is ridiculous on its face to anyone familiar with the data. (Sowell’s overlooked book Civil Rights: Rhetoric or Reality? dismantles the “discrimination” school.)

~ Tom Woods, "Now the Savages Are Trying to Take Down One of Our Own," LewRockwell.com, June 23, 2020

Tom Woods and Walter Block in chess duel

BW: MBAs flocking to private equity (2007)

Every decade, another faddish career opportunity dazzles the nation's business schools. In the 1980s, MBAs dreamed of Wall Street fortunes, swaggering their way into penthouses and private planes. During the dot-com bubble, it was about vesting swiftly and starting a foundation by age 30.

Today job lust among B-schoolers is fiercest for the gilded, clubby preserve of private equity. "Absolutely, it's become the hot job for MBAs," says Maury Hanigan, president of New York's MBA Scouting Report.

From the Wharton School to the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business, it sometimes seems as if private equity is all anyone is talking and thinking about. MBA programs have always had private equity clubs. But B-schools at New York University, Dartmouth, and Columbia all report record memberships in these networking fests. At Wharton, nearly half the student body is a member of the private equity club. Conferences starring such legends as Blackstone Group chief Stephen A. Schwarzman sell out months in advance. And the schools have been falling all over themselves to add classes teaching everything from innovative dealmaking to the art of wielding "influence" within a firm.

Some see this as a leading indicator of yet another bubble. We know where the earlier stampedes to Wall Street and Silicon Valley ended. In five years, when these junior barons want to start their own funds, will the wash of money still be in private equity? Then again, what better school for a lesson in risk?

~ BW, "What B-Schoolers Lust For Now ," January 22, 2007, by Michelle Conlin