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(Tenured Radical)

Monday, September 12, 2005

BADA BOOM

Some heavy-going irony, in an American Enterprise Institute online publication, from a colleague of UD’s. He’s in GWU’s Economics department. No economist - with the exception of John Kenneth Galbraith, who has always been considered eccentric - cares about good writing, but sometimes it can make a difference.

Did I say irony? Make that sarcasm. The writer begins by noting that pretty much everyone on the faculty of an American university is a liberal; he then asks a couple of questions and exclaims a couple of exclamations:


If redistributing wealth is a good idea for workers, companies, individuals, and families, then intellectual consistency suggests it should be equally valid for institutions like colleges and universities. Right?

Why should students at Princeton, where economist Paul Krugman teaches when he is not thundering against the “well off ” on the New York Times editorial page, enjoy income from huge endowments, while students at poorer institutions have far fewer educational resources? How unfair!

Worse, the extreme inequality of colleges is subsidized by the government. Gifts to rich schools are tax deductible for the donors. Universities and colleges pay no taxes on their capital gains, dividend, and interest income. This is an outrage against liberal principles! Remedial legislation is clearly needed!



Why does the writer put the phrase “well off” in quotation marks? Is Krugman wrong that rich people are well off? Is the writer suggesting that the well off do not exist?

The writer goes on to point out that


The disparities in college endowments are enormous. As of mid 2004, Harvard, Yale, and Princeton had average endowments of $14.9 billion, while three private institutions of similar size, George Washington University, Georgetown, and American University, averaged $543 million. That is a ratio of 27:1—about the same difference in income between a successful investment banker and a Wal-Mart clerk.

The numbers are even more striking in small liberal arts colleges. Grinnell, the richest of those that report data publicly, had an endowment of $1.2 million per student. Annual earnings of just 4 percent would produce more than $46,000 per student in yearly interest. Why does Grinnell charge tuition?



Er, I know that last question’s rhetorical -- as are all the questions so far asked in this piece -- but why does Grinnell charge tuition? Why does Harvard?


It’s time for an egalitarian revolution. Liberal professors at Harvard, Princeton, Amherst, and Williams should follow the principles they proclaim and strongly support action to end campus disparities by redistributing educational wealth.

Congress should pass, and President Bush should sign, a hefty and progressive tax on large per student endowments. The funds should be transferred to poorer schools. The same tax should apply to future gifts from alumni.



Voila. Touche. Game set and match. The writer seems sure he’s been very clever, but in fact he’s now got me thinking that there must be a better attitude toward these remarkable disparities than complacency ...