Even Conservatives Like Public Enterprise

Creep­ing Social­ism at The National Review:

In a short piece titled “Ivy Chase” (and we should note that “Ivy” is printed in red), Kevin A. Has­sett clearly under­mines the Friedmanite-​​Hayekian-​​von Mis­ean cause. Not­ing that this is “the time of year when high school seniors zip uncount­able col­lege appli­ca­tions across the coun­try” and that “many yearn to be accepted in top pri­vate col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties such as Har­vard or Williams and fear that they might get stuck at a lowly ‘state school,’” Has­sett poses the sub­ver­sive ques­tion: “But are pub­lic uni­ver­si­ties in the U.S. really that bad?”

Cit­ing a recent report by the web­site Payscale​.com, Has­sett observes that “pub­lic insti­tu­tions trounce the pri­vate ones in terms of the per­cent­age return on invest­ment.” In other words, if you want to get your money’s worth and, indeed, make a lot of money, you should seri­ously con­sider going “pub­lic.” Or, as he advises the aspir­ing and ambi­tious eighteen-​​year-​​old, “So, if you are anx­ious this appli­ca­tion sea­son, relax. In most cases, the impact of end­ing up at a small state school rather than a ‘first choice’ will be small indeed.”

Yep, pub­lic admin­is­tra­tion of edu­ca­tion is some­thing even con­ser­v­a­tives will go ahead and vouch for. Sweet deal.

18 February 2011 – 9:10 pm | By Benjamin Daniels | Posted in Collectivism, Socialism, Communism, Economics, Public or Collective Ownership | Tagged , | Comments (893)