Posted on 02/28/2010 9:16:51 AM PST by bopdowah
Smart people should make smart decisions. So why do the best and the brightest always seem to create more problems than they solve? Renowned economist Thomas Sowell argues that intellectuals have strong incentives to step out of their area of expertise and "off a cliff." Ultimately, everyday people pay the price....
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
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Everyday students can pay the price also. Here’s an example:
An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had once failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Obama’s socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer. The professor then said, “OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama’s plan”. All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A...
After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little. The second test average was a D! No one was happy.
When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F. The scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.
All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.
Could not be any simpler than that.
Remember, there is a mid-term election in 2010!
Yeah, the smart guys have done a fine job in comparison since 1988.
I personally believe that he/she you classify as an “Intellectual” is an individual who stepped onto the college campus at age 18/19 and has yet to leave. They are ‘thinkers of great thoughts’ who have absolutely NO connection with the result of those thoughts as it impacts the real world. Neither do they, insulated from that real world, have to follow up those impacts.
“He who possess no knowledge”, the owner of a business, may have NO degree that proclaims him/her an intellectual, but instantly is aware of the remifications of every government pronouncement and brainstorm.
The intellectual/politician sees (ie) the raising of the gasoline tax as a much desired/needed revenue enhancement. In the name of “goodness, justice, and mercy” the gas tax is raised. The real world instantly knows the cost of the commute to work, the cost of shipping food across a 3000 mile wide continent, the cost of taking a vacation, the cost of EVERYTHING that must be transported further than walking distance will rise. End result is a DROP in gas tax revenues.
When said INTELLECTUAL is protected against the disaster his thoughts have created by TENURE, then there is NO need for him to do a true follow-up study.
The intellectual does not “fall off the cliff”, rather he stands at the top, intellectually thinking of a way to solve the problems of those going over the edge.
What intellectual? Name names.
Criminals, deceivers, con-man, liars drag the rest of us down.
That story is in my archive now.
The very thought that a complete prat like Obama was our first black President - when our country has men like Sowell - is almost enough to reduce one to tears.
So true, Reagan’s greatness would have shone through with or without his college diploma. Greatness and good old common sense aren’t taught at universities.
you said a mouthfull there...
Sowell of course is an intellectual as Milton Friedman, Hayek, Walter Williams, Rand etc are/were. The issue is not intellectual or not but rather statist or not.
I believe Sowell’s point is somewhat that since people will take their opinions on things they might now little about seriously, intellectuals have an incentive to make such statements. Really the problem with US universities is not they they are too intellectual, but that with speach codes ect they are becoming less intellectual.
As for who we have had as presidents. Clinton went to Georgetown not an Ivy. He went to Yale for law school. George H.W. Bush went to Yale ages ago, graduating in 1948 two years before William F. Buckley another Ivy intelectual who was not so bad. George W. Bush did go to Yale and then Harvard MBA. I tought most here agree with the hard left that G.W. Bush was no intellectual?
My point is that there is no reason for FR to be anti-intellectual like the hard left. We should be pro-intellectual including intellectual diversity, the one kind of diversity ignored by the left.
It’s like the old book, the Peter Principle, where people who were doing well in their jobs were promoted to higher jobs they couldn’t handle.
Right, I am a economics prof. My views on literature, art, science should not hold any special weight. Too often people with training in art or literature or education or etc offer opinions about economics in which they have little training.
Now everyone has opinions about economics, art, literature etc. But if you are not trained in an area, then your opinion holds no more weight than anyone else. And just because you are trained in economics means your opinion is not necessarily better than anyone elses about literature and if you are trained in literature, you really should not pretend to be an expert on economics in your classes.
The common mistake many people gifted with a high I.Q. or credited with expertise in one area is to believe they are geniuses in all areas. It’s also the tendency of many libs to believe they know what’s best for all.
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