I pointed this out a while ago, but it needs repeating.
You cannot expect a group of adults whose only experiences are in the non-profit/government/education industries to lead with any measure of competence in that they are politicians first and foremost and have not the ability nor care to adhere to mathematical and financial reality. They are mentally spoiled little children who just happened to be in adult bodies that purposely and consciously chose weak degrees requiring no rigor, effort or thought, and consequently chose easy "careers." It should be no shock that Stockton, or any city or organization, led by such weak and talentless people went bankrupt.
And I'm being deadly serious when I say this, INVESTMENT ANALYSTS, MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS, HEDGE FUND MANAGERS and any other investment professional in charge of investing in government bonds (be they municipal, state or national) are practically MANDATED to investigate whether or not the elected leaders of those governments majored in the liberal arts.
I guarantee you that the default rate of municipalities headed up by doctors, plumbers, accountants, etc., is much lower than that of municipalities headed up by liberal art majors.
Common sense 101. This blog post alone should be a college class in itself, but universities would just waste the money at on more hip hop classes at places like Georgetown and Rutgers. Don't major in crap and you'll be less likely to default and develop bad credit in the first place.
ReplyDeleteI guarantee you that the default rate of municipalities headed up by doctors, plumbers, accountants, etc., is much lower than that of municipalities headed up by liberal art majors.
ReplyDeleteCertainly seems like this ought to be true, but do you have real default rate statistics to back it up?
It's just another domino.
ReplyDeleteAfter the first one did it, the others breathed a sigh of relief because they could go ahead and not be on the list as first. The pace will only accelerate.
ReplyDeleteBut enlightened liberals know that people who majored in the soft sciences "care more" for people, and can give people hope.
ReplyDeleteWhy elect a businessman with years of experience in banking, real estate development and creating businesses? He only cares for the ultra-richest 1% of the richest 1%.
It's all about feelings now, no common sense welcome.
The best-run municipality in my area has a retired M.D. as the town supervisor. Pretty much all the other towns are fiscal disasters.
ReplyDeleteHow then would you rate the financial stability of a town/city run by people without college degrees?
ReplyDeleteI think you're trying to say "Liberal Arts" majors. A liberal "art major" would be an entirely different creature. A certain precision is called for, don't you agree?
ReplyDeleteIncreasingly, the kind of people you're talking about come out of Schools of Public Service and the like, and don't even make it into Liberal Arts. You know, in a traditional university, even today, physics and Shakespeare are both taught in the College of Arts and Sciences.
A quick perusal of the Founding Fathers who attended colleges (law, engineering and medicine being apprenticeships then) shows a distressing percentage of divinity grads. Perhaps you'd just touch on that.
Going through the list - it looks like most of the council members got "Good Enough Degrees". One council member doesn't even list a degree. She's the Stockton version of cute apparently.
ReplyDeleteThe one guy who went to Stanford? This is what it lists as his bullshit degree:
After Franklin, Michael earned a full ride scholarship to Stanford University graduating with his master's degree in Policy, Leadership and Organization Studies, his bachelor's degree with honors, as a Truman Scholar and as the recipient of the highest university award, the Dinkelspiel. While at Stanford, Michael served as President of the school's NAACP,
Not an economics major in the lot of them.