
The Value of Education in a Recession - robg
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/08/the-value-of-education-in-a-recession/
======
johnnybgoode
I'm going to create a new credential called a "gyuhjk".

Then, I'm going to take over the government and require gyuhjks to enter
certain professions. I'm also going to massively fund and regulate the
granting of gyuhjks. In addition to this, I will make sure virtually everyone
who grows up in my territory will be conditioned to value gyuhjks, no matter
how much or how little they really matter. But it will still generally be very
expensive to get a gyuhjk, of course, in terms of both time and money.

After I do all of this, when holding a gyuhjk is shown to correlate with
higher earnings, I'm going to use that as evidence when I tell people they
really, really, really need a gyuhjk. And I might even be right sometimes,
though not because gyuhjks were ever really as inherently important as I
always claim.

------
tokenadult
As usual, this confuses the direction of causation, because the people with
higher education came from richer families in the first place.

Here are some links about the issue. The overall picture in the past decade
has been that high-ability, low-income students are at a clear disadvantage in
the college admission process compared to low-ability, high-income students.
(The links below are in approximate chronological order of publication, from
oldest to newest.) Is anything changing recently about this?

[http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_27/b3840045_...](http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_27/b3840045_mz007.htm)

<http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ffp0621.pdf>

<http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ff0615S.pdf>

<http://www.tcf.org/Publications/Education/carnrose.pdf>

[http://www.tcf.org/Publications/Education/kahlenberg-
affacti...](http://www.tcf.org/Publications/Education/kahlenberg-
affaction.pdf)

<http://harvardmagazine.com/2005/05/a-thumb-on-the-scale.html>

[http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200511/financial-aid-
leveragi...](http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200511/financial-aid-leveraging/4)

<http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=510012>

<http://www.equaleducation.org/commentary.asp?opedid=1240>

[http://www.jkcf.org/assets/files/0000/0084/Achievement_Trap....](http://www.jkcf.org/assets/files/0000/0084/Achievement_Trap.pdf)

<http://www.reason.com/news/show/123910.html>

[http://www.ihep.org/publications/publications-
detail.cfm?id=...](http://www.ihep.org/publications/publications-
detail.cfm?id=117)

[http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2008/11...](http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2008/11/10/colleges_reach_out_to_poorer_students?mode=PF)

[http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hkBGMsvJKR...](http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hkBGMsvJKRKaL67qxkOCaDByDJFAD94R70G02)

