It's Not The Ease Of The Work

 I haven't linked much to Yglesias recently (in part because I now seem to link almost exclusively to Richardson and Krugman). Today, however, he's so deep on his bullshit that I need to.

His argument is that people have devalued the Humanities because they are too easy. Now, there is absolutely grade inflation, and that grade inflation has hit Humanities harder than other disciplines. But nowhere does he offer a shred of evidence that these courses are easier than they used to be.

As a teacher and the parent of college students, I think the answer is far more about how you perceive your job prospects after you graduate. We have turned post-secondary education into a commodity that you develop in return for better job prospects when you graduate. One reason why STEM majors are more respected is not just that they are hard, but you will find a job after graduating and it will pay well.

If we just look at the Ivies (which is an outlier demographic), over a third of students are majoring in Computer Science, Econometrics or Applied Math. Our "adopted" Ukrainian son is at an Ivy and majoring in Applied Mathematics. He was looking at the Humanities BUT THEY WERE TOO HARD. He's ridiculously intelligent, and his intelligence is wired for math in a way that makes the difficulties of math more appealing to him. Roughly 15% of Ivy leaguers are majoring in History, International Relations or Political Science. Ideally, that number would be around 25%, but if you compare that to the 4% that are English majors, that says something, too.

Lets rack focus back to all US universities. Of all degrees awarded, 19% were in Business, 13% in "health professions", 7% in social science and history, 7% in biological and medical science, 6% in psychology and 6% in engineering. The key numbers there are the top two. The reason almost a third of college graduates are getting Business and Health Professions (not pre-med) degrees is that that is where the money is. These majors are not especially rigorous in the way that Engineering is. That doesn't stop kids from signing up.

At no point in Yglesias' argument does he offer evidence. It's all a priori assumptions.

Typical of a philosophy major.