That thing were Jared Bernstein sub-blogs you

By mentioning comments you made in an earlier blog!

Sweet day!

http://jaredbernsteinblog.com/inversion-diversions-yes-we-need-broader-corporate-tax-reform-but-we-should-fix-our-inversion-problem-first/

Grad Schools are the new DeVry

The funny thing is that I wrote this and then I realized that the same critique might hold for the Master's in Humanities. Here's the difference: at the lower level, they pretend that you will get a job in industry. The upper level is a farce that you will be part of the reproductive act. The idea is that you will know more at 22 than 18...

"I have been reading about the pending shutdown of Corinthian Schools (Everest) from multiple sources. I subscribe to both the Journal and the Times, and let me tell you, they have different editorial voices.
 

I have to tell you, I am suspicious of for-profit schools. And I will tell you why. I have five years of teaching experience. I taught for two years as an undergraduate instructor in the chemistry department of WVU; I taught for two years as a graduate instructor at Kansas State; I then taught for a year at Saint Rita of Casica High School in Chicago.

I was then unemployed for two years when the economy hit the fan in 2008. I ended up getting into a program where I received a certificate in medical coding and billing from DeVry. The people in charge of the 30 or so people that were in the DeVry program nominated me for outstanding student in the larger program (we were one of six or so groups in the larger program). I got straight A’s for 30 credit hours at DeVry.

I then looked for a job in the profession that I was allegedly qualified for. I even took and passed a certification test for medical coding and billing.

I could not find a job in my field.

So I went and talked to the people at DeVry in charge of the program. You know what they told me I should do? With my experience, I should teach Medical Billing and coding. Basically they admitted that there were so few open jobs other than being part of the reproduction process of creating more people who were nominally qualified for the job but who couldn’t find work.

I am incredibly thankful I was able to move away from that as a potential career path."

Why I Hate For-Profit Colleges

I have been reading about the pending shutdown of Corinthian Schools (Everest) from multiple sources. I subscribe to both the Journal and the Times, and let me tell you, they have different editorial voices.

I have to tell you, I am suspicious of for-profit schools. And I will tell you why. I have five years of teaching experience. I taught for two years as an undergraduate instructor in the chemistry department of WVU; I taught for two years as a graduate instructor at Kansas State; I then taught for a year at Saint Rita of Casica High School in Chicago.

I was then unemployed for two years when the economy hit the fan in 2008. I ended up getting into a program where I received a certificate in medical coding and billing from DeVry. The people in charge of the 30 or so people that were in the DeVry program nominated me for outstanding student in the larger program (we were one of six or so groups in the larger program). I got straight A’s for 30 credit hours at DeVry.

I then looked for a job in the profession that I was allegedly qualified for. I even took and passed a certification test for medical coding and billing.

I could not find a job in my field.

So I went and talked to the people at DeVry in charge of the program. You know what they told me I should do? With my experience, I should teach Medical Billing and coding. Basically they admitted that there were so few open jobs other than being part of the reproduction process of creating more people who were nominally qualified for the job but who couldn’t find work.

I am incredibly thankful I was able to move away from that as a potential career path.

Reading the Classics: Capitalism and Freedom (Part I)

In trying to teach myself about the history of economics, I have often gone to the source texts in an attempt to get a sense of the history of economic thought (something that from reading the blogs these past five years seems to show is missing; Krugman quoted Thoma recently saying that there are no new ideas in economics, just old books).  

It has been a slog at times. I read Keynes’ “General Theory” as one of the first books in the project and had to skip the equations and luxuriate in his explanatory prose. I should return to that text someday just to see my marginalia.  I read “The Road to Serfdom” on a succession of un-air-conditioned nights one summer, and felt he was making a critical error in categorizing German Fascism and Soviet Communism as being of a kind. Many people who visited the page on Amazon where I posted that critique disagreed. It didn’t help that I posted it two days before Glen Beck devoted an entire episode to the book and its greatness, making mine the most recent critical review. I was able to get into a fruitless exchange below the review in the comments section until I decided to stop. Then the trolls stopped. I have to say that Hayek did teach me one thing: Don’t feed the trolls.   

I have to admit that I started and abandoned Wealth of Nations about a third of a way in, and Schumpeter at an equally early point. I have every intention of going back, but my “to read” shelf is thick and my time on this planet finite.

It is in that vein that I started reading Friedman’s “Capitalism and Freedom” last night. I am not sympathetic to the man – from watching interviews of him he is an arrogant prick assured of his own correctnessness. I am not sympathetic to his arguments or the political legacy of his arguments. I am much more left-wing than he was. I am, however, desirous to read what was a popular book aimed at non-economists.

Prefaces:

The layout of the book is such – the edition of the book I have is the third edition, and there are prefaces to go with each edition, counting back. So there’s a 2002, 1982, and 1962 preface at the front of the book. What interests me is the tone on each of the sections. In 2002, Friedman is a little triumphant because the US has made much progress towards a more “free” society through Reagan and Bushes. In 1982 he is hopeful about the future. In 1962 he sounds cynical, because the welfare state has taken away his freedom (I hope ‘62 Miltie was prepared for Freedom Summer and the Civil Rights Act).

Introduction, first pages of chapter 1:

What got me as I was reading was that there was no positive definition of “Freedom”. There is no sentence, that I saw, that started “Freedom is…”. Friedman splits freedom down to economic and political freedom, saying that they often go hand-in-hand, cheering the symbiotic relationship between capitalism and democracy.

But then there’s this: he starts the book by trying to deconstruct Kennedy’s “Ask not” quote. He poo-poos the idea of a hierarchy between people and the state, no matter who you put on top.  

This will take a while, thankfully the book is only about 200 pages.