Richard Vedder on the Failings of Higher Education

November 20, 2019 Addendum: The videos originally linked in this column are no longer on YouTube. So I’ve added this Reason TV discussion with Richard Vedder, which addresses the same issues.

Other than my affection for the Georgia Bulldogs, I’m not a big fan of higher education.

Colleges and universities are hotbeds of political correctness, but that’s actually a minor issue.

The big problem is that higher education consumes a huge amount of resources and provides inadequate value.

In these two videos, Richard Vedder documents staggering levels of inefficiency.

And here’s another portion of Rich’s remarks, given at the Pope Center in North Carolina.

A big problem in higher education is the existence of third-party payer, which is also what’s screwing up the healthcare system. More on that issue – as it relates to higher education – later this week.

P.S. Rich also is a co-author of an article for the Cato Policy Report documenting how spending cuts helped restore growth after World War II.

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More Anti-Libertarian Humor

Lots of people were amused by the cartoon I posted yesterday, and I also got further appreciative comments about the video portraying Somalia as some sort of libertarian nirvana.

And since readers are sending in lots of good material, I’ll continue to share the really good jokes and cartoons.

Is this latest cartoon a false reading of libertarianism? Of course. But it’s funny since it takes a core truth (individual responsibility is good) and turns it into a caricature (you’re on your own, regardless).

And just to show that I’m not becoming a soft-headed statist, here are links to some of my favorite jokes mocking leftists.

• Obama watching the Super Bowl (first posted in 2010, but very appropriate for today).
• Understanding how statists think.
• How a leftist defends himself from charges of embezzlement and malfeasance.
• My personal favorite, showing the inevitable consequence of big government.
• A cartoon exposing the silliness of Keynesian economics.
• Some superb parody of Obama’s college transcript.
• Why nymphomaniacs should marry people from the government.
• And an image from the Beijing Olympics showing how communists can be efficient.

I figure that nobody can question my philosophical bona fides if I provide eight anti-leftist jokes for every anti-libertarian joke.

Addendum: A reader reminds me of this real-world example of government lifeguards.

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