Atlas Shrugged: The Mocking

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

The Poor Will Be With Us Always

Megan McArdle reads that credit card laws favor the rich over the poor, but is unimpressed.

To be sure, the current system benefits the wealthy most. But that is broadly true of many business models; shall we outlaw Costco because the poor cannot afford lavish pantries and large chest freezers in which to store their warehouse-club bounty?


McArdle also thinks that affirmative action is unnecessary because the poor rarely go to Harvard anyway.

This is not to make fun of liberals or conservatives who think that more poor kids ought to go to Harvard; that would indeed be nice. But the fact remains that very few kids are going to go to Harvard, no matter how you play around with their admissions formula.


You could read the entire thing, but then you would be encouraging The Atlantic to continue their own affirmative action policy of hiring the incompetent.

5 comments:

Andrew Johnston said...

Is it just me, or does that first quote make absolutely no sense whatsoever?

McArdle is truly a miracle. I think she's actually getting worse at her job. It's sort of impressive, really.

Anonymous said...

Harvard hasn't been doing itself any favors in recent years for their tendency to accept ill-prepared homeschooled types like Ben Shapiro, and they certainly didn't cover themselves in glory by giving George W Bush an MBA.

I'm against that sort of affirmative action, but I suspect McArdle means something quite different, since her words drip with ill-advised condescension. Whatever she thinks of herself, I very much doubt she is as smart, as successful, as beautiful, as likable, as as she thinks she is. Hopefully she will take her rightful place in America's history one day, as a small footnote helping to explain the decline of a once-mighty publication like the Atlantic.

Anonymous said...

McArdle is a classic example of someone born on second base and thinking they hit a home run. She isn't nearly as smart or witty as she thinks she is, and the success she has had comes directly from her parents, not from anything she's done for herself.

Susan of Texas said...

McArdle discounts the middle class scramble for affordable houses next to good schools. The nature of school districts is not as uniform as she thinks, as well. We have good schools in the inner city (since many, many wealthy or nearly wealthy people want to live near downtown) and many poor neighborhoods in the suburbs and exurbs with mediocre schools. And there is no zoning in my city.

Plus there's the whole issue of race--my city has a very diverse range of races and ethnicities, and fearful whites want to be in all-white neighborhoods. Besides the racists, there are a lot of people who just don't want their kids to be nearly the only white/black/Hispanic kid in the school.

Plus, we have superior magnet schools, where your child can apply and go if accepted no matter where he lives.

It's not simple, and it's not just Harvard. It's not even just schools, of course. Affirmative action covers a lot more than that. But why think and research when you can toss something off?

Susan of Texas said...

The USA is anti-white so just expect more of that.

I'm sorry, you must have me confused with somebody who can't think.