{"id":5407,"date":"2011-12-20T11:35:41","date_gmt":"2011-12-20T18:35:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/simonburrow.com\/\/?p=5407"},"modified":"2011-12-20T11:35:41","modified_gmt":"2011-12-20T18:35:41","slug":"why-a-bachelors-degree-is-like-sneakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/simonburrow.com\/?p=5407","title":{"rendered":"Why a Bachelors Degree is like Sneakers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This comparison was in the <a href=\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/article\/SB10001424052970204770404577080660564365248.html?KEYWORDS=notable+and+Quotable\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>WSJ Notable &amp; Quotable<\/strong><\/a> section a few weeks ago:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The reason why a bachelors degree on its own no longer conveys intelligence and capability is that the government decided that as many people as possible should have bachelors degrees.<\/p>\n<p>There is something of a pattern here.\u00a0 The government decided to try to increase the middle class by subsidizing thing that middle class people have: If middle class people go to college and own homes, then surely if more people go to college and own homes, we&#8217;ll have more middle class people.\u00a0 But homeownership and college aren&#8217;t causes of middle class status, they&#8217;re markers for possessing the kinds of traits &#8212; self-discipline, the ability to defer gratification, etc. &#8212; that let your enter and stay in the middle class.<\/p>\n<p>Subsidizing the markers doesn&#8217;t produce the traits; if anything it undermines them.\u00a0 One might as well try to promote basketball skills by distributing expensive sneakers.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>the quote is from <a href=\"http:\/\/pjmedia.com\/instapundit\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Glenn Reynolds<\/strong><\/a> who blogs on <a href=\"http:\/\/pjmedia.com\/instapundit\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>instapundit.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a class=\"tt-flickr tt-flickr-Medium\" title=\"IMG_3976\" href=\"http:\/\/simonburrow.com\/\/photos\/photo\/6490734801\/img_3976.html\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7019\/6490734801_5ed13f64c3.jpg?resize=376%2C282\" alt=\"IMG_3976\" width=\"376\" height=\"282\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Well Said. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This comparison was in the WSJ Notable &amp; Quotable section a few weeks ago: &#8220;The reason why a bachelors degree on its own no longer conveys intelligence and capability is that the government decided that as many people as possible should have bachelors degrees. There is something of a pattern here.\u00a0 The government decided to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[71,316,311],"class_list":["post-5407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-economics","tag-nanny-state","tag-politics"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p99jGb-1pd","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/simonburrow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/simonburrow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/simonburrow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simonburrow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simonburrow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5407"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/simonburrow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5408,"href":"https:\/\/simonburrow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5407\/revisions\/5408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/simonburrow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simonburrow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simonburrow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}