Sometimes, formal education just doesn't seem to pay

Good question:

The Chronicle of Higher Education recently conducted a study finding that California has the most educated Legislature with most legislators earning a bachelor’s degree or higher.  If California’s Legislature is so intelligent and educated, why is the Capitol and the state economy in such bad shape?

Interesting detail:

When comparing the top and bottom 15 states to the Mercatus Center’s Freedom in the 50 States Economic and Fiscal Freedom Indicators, the statistics show that the bottom 15 educated states have a higher economic freedom and fiscal freedom score than the 15 most educated states.  Fiscal Freedom is measured by spending, taxation and fiscal decentralization.  Economic Freedom is a measure of individual liberty, government spending, income taxes and sales taxes. South Dakota, which has one of the least educated legislatures, ranks number one on the economic freedom scale due to its high fiscal decentralization, and low levels of taxation and spending. California, which ranks 47th out of 50 according to the Mercatus study, “not only taxes and regulates its economy more than most other states, it also aggressively interferes in the personal lives of its citizens.”

Yeah, yeah, correlation is not cause. But still, it's . . .  suggestive.

Link via the Big Henry.

Comments

[Ted Craig]

I've come to the conclusion that many very smart people are also very shallow. It's not that they lack the intelligence to solve problems. It's that they lack the understanding.

[jorgxmckie]

Here's some total snark. How many of those degrees are in Education?

[jorgxmckie]

Having said that, perhaps a) legislatures without so many college grads are more truly representative, and b) those without degrees haven't been totally 'educated' by the quasi-Marxist approach so commonly taught in colleges.

[Ken]

I don't think this is surprising at all. How many in college think they since they are smart think they know what's good for everyone? I'm pretty sure that intelligence is massively correlated with the outrageous confidence it takes to believe there is a solution to every problem and that you personally know what that solution is. Add to that intelligence four years of people telling you how smart you are and you can see how out of control things can get.

Half way to getting my PhD, I made the decision that I would just get an MS. I was getting the PhD to keep open the option of teaching at the college level. Thankfully, grad school cured me of any of those ambitions. The complete lack of historical, geographic, demographic, and political knowledge on display by not just grad students, but faculty and staff as well, showed me that I did not want to have anything to do with such people ever again. Imagine people so ignorant, yet so oblivious to such ignorance, feeling the need to voice opinions on everything, then putting on a display of such shocking bigotry and intolerance when faced with a differing point of view that is backed up with actual facts.

[Tom]

For most problems facing a state government, the correct answer is also the answer that academics hate the most: Don't mess with it and it will figure itself out. For many do-gooders without a course or two of economics, "We must do something!!!" trumps letting the market resolve the issue, followed by doing something else to resolve the unintended consequences of the previous solution.