Against Tulip Subsidies

This is a good piece.

I think he misses the simplest and fairest solution to the problem, however: award degrees solely on the basis of challenge tests, or the submission of a thesis.

If a person demonstrably has the knowledge, who should care how he acquired it, or how quickly he acquired it.

Insisting on a set number of hours and years in school before awarding the degree is just affirmative action for dummies. That, and a good way to enforce the class system.

As to businesses insisting on more education than is really needed for a job, this should not be a problem in a free market. If a guy with less education can do the same job, no competent business is going to require the higher degree. The current degree inflation is largely due to people being passed through the system at every level for time served, without objective standards of knowledge acquired. Desperate businesses now feel they need to see at least a bachelors degree to feel confident the employee is minimally literate and well-spoken.