One of the consequences of the higher-education bubble—an enormous decades-long increase in college tuition—is the withering away of majors in the humanities, from 14% of all college majors fifty years ago to 7% today. After all, if you have to spend upwards of $100,000 for an education, you probably ought to choose a field where […]
Tag Archives | higher education
The University Utopia
Three Paradoxes of American Politics, Part 2 Just after November’s election, I posed three paradoxes of American politics, asking why certain demographic groups make up reliable voting blocs for the left, even though the pro-free-market ideas of the right have so much to offer them. I have begun to revisit these paradoxes. In part one […]
The Third Industrial Revolution
We Are All Futurists Now, Part 1 I recently commented on an article about the economic rise of Africa. A more recent follow-up on that story puts the Africa boom in a very useful historical perspective. The rise of Africa’s long forlorn economies…represents the final phase of a global economic transformation that began over 200 […]
The Great Disappointment
Top Stories of 2012 Having dealt with the fifth and fourth biggest stories of the year in separate articles, I will now count down the top three stories, drawing on the extensive coverage I have given them this year. #3 • The Bubble-Bursters I almost selected as the third most important story of the year […]
Higher Education in the Bubble
There is continuing controversy over whether there is a higher-education bubble, but higher ed has definitely been “in the bubble” for a long time, deliberately sealed off from any connection to its underlying economic value. Consider a report on recent attempt by several state governments to gather data on the earnings prospects of graduates from […]
The Affirmative Action Scam
An article in The New Republic explains that the Supreme Court might be on the verge of definitively banning “affirmative action” at public universities—but it also describes the high-tech method these schools are already planning to use to subvert such a ruling. After Michiganders voted in 2006 to ban the use of racial preferences in […]
The “Skills Gap” and the Education Bubble
Originally published in TIA Daily. In early 2009, during the first few dreadful months of the Obama administration, I set out looking for signs of hope by taking an inventory of America’s remaining cultural reserves of strength. This included a look at what Americans turn to for their daily entertainment, particularly on television. I wrote […]
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Politics Is Boring
Annual Report from The Tracinski Letter This year, I’m starting a new tradition: an end-of year “annual report” discussing what I’ve done in the past year and what’s coming for next year, both in terms of the logistics of the newsletter and in terms of its intellectual content. This has, of course, been a big […]