Friday, January 25, 2013

The Great Migration


Justin's post below reminded me of this article in the New York Times this morning:


http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/25/opinion/brooks-the-great-migration.html

Mr. Brooks raises the idea meritocracy, an elite group of people whose progress is based on ability and talent rather than on class privilege or wealth, in his article The Great Migration. Many of you are the "Smart high school students from rural Nebraska, small-town Ohio and urban Newark" who have the opportunity to attend a good school. Do you want to return there after graduation? Mr. Brooks would guess not. The highly educated relocate to a few particular areas. They tend to move to Washington, Boston, San Jose, Raleigh-Durham and San Francisco. There, almost 50 percent of the residents have at least a bachelors degree.

As Justin pointed out below, those with college degrees are more likely to find employment. Well sure, after all, that is why we are all here. But studies like the one conducted by Robert Oprisko of Butler University suggest that half of the jobs in university political science programs go to graduates of the top 11 schools (Harvard, Princeton, Yale). If one has earned a degree from one of the other 100 degree-granting universities, his or her odds are not as good. Even these other 100 schools prefer not to hire the sort of graduates they themselves turn out. They want the cream of the crop.

Mr. Brooks then goes on to discuss the current administrations efforts to close the wealth gap and the problems that have and will arise. I will spare you my opinions on the matter, as I am sure they would not be well received. 

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