Prof. Fritz McDonald, Meet David Lereah

David Lereah, if you don't know, was the chief economist of the National Association of Realtors and his claim to fame was swearing up and down that there was no housing bubble until it invariably popped.  His outlandishly optimistic and naive predictions and arguments showed how an association like the NAAR was a biased entity and should have been hiring real economists like me instead.

However, there is a new bubble about and it is the education bubble.  And while there is no forefront media spokesperson type of guy like David Lereah for academia, an agent in the field sent me this article written by one Fritz McDonald.  An excerpt:

 I understand that many of you work full time, sometime many jobs. Here is my advice to you: do as little work as you possibly can outside of college. College is a full-time job. It might be the best full-time job you ever have. Go ask your parents for more money, if they have it. Spend less money on your car or clothes. Don't waste your time working at Abercrombie and Fitch or Taco Bell. Spend more time at OU.

The entire article is not so much the standard propaganda of "follow your heart and the money will follow" or "you can't put a price on education," but has taken a new twist of highlighting the social and cultural benefits of attending Oakland University.  This is a new twist to the strategy of getting naive children to part with their (or their parents') money in that it suggests that you cannot have a social life nor be cultured outside of that precious and necessary academia.

You know that college experience of drinking at an underage party?

Nope, can't enjoy that unless you're in college.

Road tripping out west?

Nope, can't do that unless you're in college.

See a play at the local theater?

Nope, can't do that unless you're in college.

My agent in the field wrote a response to Prof. McDonald here, but I'm going to be a bit more succinct:

Fritz is nothing more than one of thousands of academians, unionized workers, support staff, TA's, and all the other people that make up the nearly trillion dollar per year education industry.  And like most of his peers, he realizes there's a bubble and it's about to burst. 

However, this would force him, and nearly everybody else in academia to live their worst nightmare:

LEAVING ACADEMIA AND GETTING (GASP!!!! NO!!!) A REAL JOB!!!!!

This is what's behind the increasing number of academian-originated pieces out there advocating the "benefits" of a college education.

And just like it was wise to know David Lereah was biased, so too should you know all academians and professors are biased too.

You have just read the article entitled Prof. Fritz McDonald, Meet David Lereah. Please read the article from Captain Sushil Kumar About http://captainsushilkumar.blogspot.com/2014/04/prof-fritz-mcdonald-meet-david-lereah.html