[Gorjus]

[S}upply and demand can be understood by uneducated people.

I think the issue is the expectations of intellectuals relative to 'uneducated people'. Much of what the essay discusses has merits, but what is missing is the degree of recent intensity. What has made intellectuals so rabidly anti-capitalist now, as opposed to 50 years ago?

The professions he includes as intellectual are teacher, journalist, and politician/bureaucrat. These professions have always rewarded advanced education, because improper use of words stood out flagrantly and unacceptably in those areas. By virue of their verbal skills, the 'wordsmith' intellectuals were easily distinguishable from others in everyday life. It showed as they talked, and it showed in their comfortable ability to read (the easiest way to share information in the era before television) and so demonstrate greater knowledge of what was happening in the world. When they talked, people listened.

Yet verbal skills to an 'adequate' level are fundamental to all advanced training. Now that a large percentage of our society has college degrees, the engineer and businessman have picked up adequate verbal skills along the way to training that society values more. Yet for the engineer and businessman, verbal skills are not enough. As one crust old Navy Captain said, "You don't have to be a rocket scientist to be a social scientist, but you do have to be a rocket scientist to be a rocket scientist." In the law of supply and demand, there is now a much larger supply of those with adequate verbal skills.

As a result, the intellectual professions no longer attract the best and the brightest, and the respect society holds for those with no other claim to value is spiraling downward faster and faster. Thomas Sowell has written extensively about how teachers and journalists are among the lowest ranks of achievement in school. Being in the lowest third of a social order where only 10% of the people have college degrees is still a sign of intellectual achievement. Being in the lowest third of a social order where 70% of the people have college degrees puts you less than average in intelligence for the society as a whole.

So, they do everything they can to ruin the system that rewards specialized skills in the hope that their unspecialized skills can regain respect. What they don't recognize is that if we went back to the 'old' system where only the top 10% of the people went to college, most of today's teachers and journalists would never have made it through.

[dark_lord]

As a result, the intellectual professions no longer attract the best and the brightest, and the respect society holds for those with no other claim to value is spiraling downward faster and faster. Thomas Sowell has written extensively about how teachers and journalists are among the lowest ranks of achievement in school. Being in the lowest third of a social order where only 10% of the people have college degrees is still a sign of intellectual achievement. Being in the lowest third of a social order where 70% of the people have college degrees puts you less than average in intelligence for the society as a whole.

Bingo.

To add to that -- 50 years ago most women could only find "good" jobs as nurses or teachers. Lots of smart, competent women became teachers. One reason why it was possible to educate kids well back then was because the teachers were generally quite competent. Once the women could get other jobs, the "best and brightest" fled teaching for other professions and the teaching field became the realm of a few struggling folks who really want to help kids amidst a sea of incompetent hacks. It is a simple fact that of all occupations, teachers today (with a few exceptions) are at the low end of the IQ pool.