'The Conversation' Category Archive

Please Explain the Point about the Stigma

I think I understand social stigma, but what is Murray saying about it? That young people are going to college because they cannot bear the thought of being labeled “second class citizens” for being mere high school graduates? They are just searching for some sort of social status? And if they don’t get it, society [...]

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Dropping Out and the Return to Education

One point I’d like Murray to expand upon is that a lot of people who start the BA don’t finish.  He tells us that college…
…is still too intellectually demanding for a large majority of students, in an age when about 50 percent of all high school graduates are heading to four-year colleges the next fall. [...]

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Murray Is Selling His Own Argument Short

Murray misunderstands me.  Yes, I freely admit that the current system works great for me, but I nevertheless see it as a massive waste of time and resources.  I am delighted to hear Murray’s charge that the BA is the work of the devil.  If I were on the jury, I would vote to convict.
My [...]

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A Gross Exaggeration

To say that the entire population of non–BA holders is being “viciously” punished is a gross exaggeration, is it not? According to the latest Census educational attainment numbers, 12 percent of adults aged 25–64 don’t have a high school degree or its equivalent. Thirty percent graduated from high school but [...]

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What Justifies the Stigma of Not Getting a BA?

Am I the only man of the people in this gaggle? The three commentaries are all written from the perspective of people for whom the current system works just fine. A central tenet of my argument that we really ought to engage is this:  The current system punishes the 70 percent of kids who don’t [...]

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Best of the Blogs: Responsible Drug Use

Here are some thought-provoking excerpts from around the blogosphere commenting on this month’s edition of Cato Unbound.
Drug Law Blog: Erowid Founders on Responsible Psychoactive Use and The Cato Debate Continues:

I’ve always found Erowid to be an extremely interesting and remarkable website, not simply because it contains so much information about a somewhat [...]

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Politicians with Pot Problems

To clarify my analogies between taxing alcohol on the one hand and taxing cars, firearms, or sex on the other: In all these cases, some users — drunken drivers, reckless (but sober) drivers, violent criminals, promiscuous disease carriers — cause harm to others. But in my view, it is not fair to tax all users [...]

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Public Health Promotion is OK

The Erowids thought I was unclear about my position “with regard to the government actively promoting misunderstandings and inaccuracies about disapproved drugs and their use,” so I will be explicit. I think it OK (meaning not unconstitutional and not outrageous if the majority want it) for the government to promote health and well being [...]

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