“If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.  And they are, so there you go."

--James Madison (As interpreted by Barack Obama)

How come this sentiment doesn't extend to free speech walls?

I don't understand the appeal of this sort of lifestyle.  Presumably people work hard on weekdays then binge like crazy on the weekend?  That would drive me insane.

Oh well, to each his own.

The problem is that the attempts to help groups improve their performance often have the opposite effect.  UCLA tripled the number of black students, but the number of black UCLA graduates stayed flat.  They weren't doing anyone any favours by turning people who could have graduated at lesser colleges into UCLA dropouts.

All of these groups would be better off if we didn't have any way of identifying them at all.

It does if you look at education as an investment in the absence of a credit constraint.  That's how I look at it.

I do know what rent-seeking is.

Here's an illustration of what I mean by costly rent-seeking.  This year, Harvard had 34,303 applicants.  Let's suppose that applicants engaged in, on average, 150 hours of otherwise useless activities to bolster their Harvard applications (like being the head of an anti-littering committee).  These are bright kids, so let's assume they have an opportunity-cost of $15/hour.  Then the total cost of the rent-seeking competition is $77 million for this one school, for this one year.

Even if the market weren't as good at determining admissions, it would be less costly than the rent-seeking competition.

I wouldn't recommend this if I didn't think we have good credit markets.  However, I think we do have good credit markets, and that sending a smart person to a good school is a good investment that many lending institutions would be happy to take on.

I don't think there are all that many people who want to pay a huge amount of money just to drop out and ruin educational quality.

But suppose there are such people.  That affects Harvard's profitability.  If Harvard can identify students who will raise or lower its educational quality, then it can use price discrimination (ie. scholarships) to get the best students.

But that's the point, isn't it?  A Harvard education is a scarce resource, so many people have to be excluded from having one.  Whether people are sorted by their willingness to pay, or by the whims of an admissions department, or by some other system, many people will be excluded from getting a degree that says "Harvard" on it.

The people who are willing to pay $100k do so because they expect a benefit of at least $100k.  The people who are not willing to pay $100k, however smart they are, must not expect $100k of benefit.

Everyone who exited the labour force did so to enter grad school.  I did, so there's n=1 right there.

This bikini barista thing could be applied to all sorts of careers!  Think about it: bikini mechanics, bikini dentists, bikini statisticians (my personal favourite), bikini radiologists, bikini tour guides, bikini basketball coaches, bikini gender-studies profs, bikini dance instructors, bikini paralegals, bikini bureaucrats, bikini film editors, bikini fishermen, bikini chefs, bikini military officers, bikini lobbyists, bikini bikini manufacturers, bikini elementary school teachers, bikini welders, bikini translators, etc!

That constitutional challenge was absurd on its face.  I'll bet there are plenty of instances of people buying kosher food with food stamps, and nobody argues that food stamps are unconstitutional.

The publicity on this will do more to end violence than the guns themselves ever could.  Criminals who know there's a good chance of getting blown away will stay clear of those neighbourhoods.

I'm all for celibacy in the priesthood.  More for me!

I wish I could be there, but engineers have wasted the past few decades building things that aren't personal teleporters.  Sigh.

I'm not regretting my decision to focus my research only on important topics.  What I am regretting is not getting my hands on any of that grant money.  Some day...