- America's New Mandarians: a critique of the insular and ideologically stultified training shaping the current crop of elites in our society. Aside from narrow education, our current elites are crippled by a lack of real-world experience in business as well as a raging sense of entitlement. That isn't a recipe that bodes well for our country's long-term success.
- What's the Use of a Ph.D.?: a solid presentation of the underlying problems with the ultimate degree in our academic system, the dissertation-defended doctorate. As McArdle notes, this degree is largely designed to train people to do one thing and one thing only: become a professor. As the academic market shrinks for demographic reasons, there simply aren't enough jobs for all the Ph.D.s produced. In some disciplines, like the hard sciences and the fine arts, there are other outlets for Ph.D.s aside from the teaching market, but for the humanities and social sciences, that is largely not the case. The result? Ph.D.s on food stamps or teaching in high schools.
Related item: Robert Stacy McCain discusses McArdle's New Mandarian's piece over at his blog: Our Homogenous Elite. Well worth a read for McCain's own observations about the troubling situation McArdle identifies.
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