Thanks for the ping, Kaslin.
Posted on 05/28/2010 4:43:17 PM PDT by Kaslin
Every year about this time, big-government liberals stand up in front of college commencement crowds across the country and urge the graduates to do the noblest thing possible — become big-government liberals.
That isn't how they phrase it, of course. Commencement speakers express great reverence for "public service," as distinguished from narrow private "greed." There is usually not the slightest sign of embarrassment at this self-serving celebration of the kinds of careers they have chosen — over and above the careers of others who merely provide us with the food we eat, the homes we live in, the clothes we wear and the medical care that saves our health and our lives.
What I would like to see is someone with the guts to tell those students: Do you want to be of some use and service to your fellow human beings? Then let your fellow human beings tell you what they want — not with words, but by putting their money where their mouth is.
You want to see more people have better housing? Build it! Become a builder or developer — if you can stand the sneers and disdain of your classmates and professors who regard the very words as repulsive.
Would you like to see more things become more affordable to more people? Then figure out more efficient ways of producing things or more efficient ways of getting those things from the producers to the consumers at a lower cost.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
Ping
Great article!
As always a great article from Dr Sowell.
But it was Nikola Tesla and his partner George Westinghouse who brought us electricity, far more than Thomas Edison did.
Sowell always has great lines:
“... “public service” ... as sheltered from the brutal test of reality as ... on this campus .... In these little cocoons, all that matters is how well you talk the talk. People who go into the marketplace have to walk the walk.”
Thanks for the ping, Kaslin.
bttt
Don’t become a professional parasite like your professors, sucking up the productivity of working Americans.
Oh Yeah, Life isn’t fair, GET OVER IT.
“People who go into the marketplace have to walk the walk.”
People in the ivory tower have walking to do too, of a sort. There’s heady competition in the “public sphere;” if not much for average paper-pushers, at least for sought-after positions (tenure, etc.). It’s not market-based, and it doesn’t make anyone better or more productive, but it is, strictly speaking, competition. I don’t think it’s useful to pretend as if the politics of politics doesn’t require any effort or skill beyond empty rhetoric.
Just so happens that politicking is easier than rising through merit in the marketplace. This is so because the marketplace also has flattery, back-stabbing, and other meaningless competition (people are people). It’s just that, in addition, it also has pure merit, of which there is very, very little in spheres sheltered from the test of the market.
When a politician implies they could chuck it all on a whim and collect his millions as a private citizen whenever he wants, of course it’s BS. Being accomplished in politics is not the same as making money the hard way. I’m just saying there is a walk to be walked in the public sphere, even if it’s a pathetic dance of corruption and obseqiousness.
Hahahah. Yeah, you’re right! There ain’t no free lunch! Only difference is that in “public service” efforts only reward the individual; there is no by-product benefit to others.
Thanks for the ping jaz. Another good one from Dr. Sowell.
You are very welcome
When 100% of your college debt can be cleared after 10 years, no matter how much, if you choose “public service, then that is powerful incentive.
“In his 2010 State of the Union address, President Obama called for providing complete “forgiveness” of student loans to students who spend 10 years (with 120 continuous payments) employed in public service. This would be an extension of the 2007 College Cost Reduction Act, which took effect in July 2009. Public service includes government and non-profit work, including those inculcating liberal ideology, but excludes employment in religious instruction or proselytization.[Section 685.219—Public Service Loan, p. 15.27] In addition to increasing the national debt, this provision may be seen as being conducive to further promoting the liberal entitlement mentality, and populating government with those who often manifest and propagate the same.” -
http://www.astorehouseofknowledge.info/Education_in_the_United_States#Ideology_in_modern_education
Good thing none of this has ever affected politicizing. /s
I already know of one recent law graduate who has chosen public sector work in good measure because she anticipates forgiveness of her student loans after 10 years. I'm biased toward the private sector, but even if I weren't, I think I'd be pretty careful about believing any promises from this goobermint.
Stanford’s commencement speaker this year is Susan Rice, UN Ambassador. Wouldn’t I give my eyeteeth to have Dr. Sowell instead.
IIRC Tesla was not exactly a partner and fought like hell to get all of his money from Westinghouse.
Perhaps OB can offer the grads a non-pay job on an advisory board.
Not to mention - the fantastic benefits and pensions...
Been there done that.
They need to look up the term - golden noose. Two years in private sector and I have more in a retirement plan than 8 after years in public sector. And the money is mine, and I can take it where I want and wherever I go.
Pensions sound nice and fuzzy, right up the point where you realize they aren't worth the paper their promises are written on and take all options, oppotunities, and control from you with the promise of giving you lots of someone else's money when you retire...
Well they don't put it like that. It's just another way to make people dependent...
“Tesla was not exactly a partner and fought like hell to get all of his money from Westinghouse.”
Tesla was no businessman at all. He was a somewhat eccentric and very brilliant engineering genius. The world still runs on Tesla’s ideas, and the future will include more of his ideas that have not yet been realized. Edison was a very hardworking inventor and very talented businessman; but he was no Tesla.
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