By Owen Paine on Monday May 15, 2006 01:51 PM
J Alva put us on to a nice narrative about Larry "the Lip" Summers, ex-honcho of Harvard
and veteran of various posts (including Treasury Secretary) under Bill Clinton. Summers
really is the primo example of an alpha-wolf neo-lib elitist,
and I agree, Larry's fall from the tippy top
to the gutter outside Harvard Yard
was a very gratifying spectacle.
As J. Alva says,
"The mean old left wing perfessers drove him out ."
But it reminded me of an older grudge against the Ivy League mindset itself. Maybe what we need around here is a defenestration of the whole lot of them mandarin types. Let's explode those hives of intellectual monopoly. JAS has shown us the way. "With broadband communications being so nifty and all," he observes,
"... administrators from other countries... could do the jobs much more efficiently and, it must be said, at some savings to the trustees."JAS goes on to suggest the global exploitation of all those low cost of production professors in the former third world, and he suggests a perfect guinea pig:
The economics department is set up for the best of all possible experiments.... Let the students determine the free market value of the teaching..
Comments (6)
just re read
j alva's
" Let the students determine the free market value of the teaching"
god thats poetry to me
Posted by jsp | May 15, 2006 2:44 PM
Posted on May 15, 2006 14:44
Some of the free market believers in the faculty, with tenure, defined benefit plans and the sunk costs of their own education to consider, might not like the plan. But could they resist it if was done on television, as a reality show? That would lend a certain dignity to the proceedings.
I'd also like to see an "economics hotties" competition, where the faculty could appear in swimsuits and astonish the bidding students with their athletic prowess. The fitness program they'd need to be competitive would help them with their understanding of labor.
I don't see a downside to this, JSP.
Posted by J. Alva Scruggs | May 15, 2006 4:49 PM
Posted on May 15, 2006 16:49
Any conversation that contains the word "hottie" has a downside large enough to fill up at least half the garage, she said gloomily.
Posted by alsis39.9 | May 15, 2006 7:00 PM
Posted on May 15, 2006 19:00
Does it count as justice if it's Gary Becker, with his human capital theory, in the swimsuit?
Posted by J. Alva Scruggs | May 16, 2006 12:03 AM
Posted on May 16, 2006 00:03
Earlier today, I was reading Oprah's find-your-ideal-swimsuit article, while waiting in yet another lobby for yet another non-existent temp job. Now, if she wanted to find these guys the perfect bathing suits, I would so tune in. Let's throw Lieberman and Biden in there, too. Just for a lark. Oh, and Corzine. I hear he's got awesome pins.
Posted by alsis39.9 | May 16, 2006 5:39 PM
Posted on May 16, 2006 17:39
Mother Jones suggests that Rahm himself would bear away the prize:
Posted by MJS | May 16, 2006 6:00 PM
Posted on May 16, 2006 18:00