Virginia Libertarian
Member
- Joined
- Nov 10, 2007
- Messages
- 139
Last Saturday night I stopped by one of the "hipper" bars in my college's town. Late in the night, as I was ordering a drink I look next to me and see my principles of macro professor drunk out of his mind hitting on this girl sitting next to me.
Let me try to give you a brief rundown of what this guy's class was like. He was the most pro-Keynesian person I have ever encountered in my life. Every answer to a student's question, every lecture he gave, every reading assignment and exam question were all so biased it was the closest thing I have ever seen to propaganda.
A few examples:
He dedicated an entire class to a biography of Bernanke (our disgusting textbook was co-written by Helicopter Ben himself). He discussed how the Fed, and particularly Bernanke saved us from suffering the worst depression in history, and how all of us should be praising the great job that he did as fed chairman. A student asked if he would make a good president and my professor said that it would be a good thing if our president was as knowledgeable about economics as Bernanke is.
One time a curious student (I think he might have been a closet Austrian, or at least free market supporter because he was the only one in the class that asked good questions) was asking questions about the gold standard after the professor was telling us how much better off we are now that the link to gold was severed. The student asked what the dollar was backed by, and the professor had this huge grin on his face and said, this is a direct quote, "it's backed by the United State's government. It's really a wonderful thing now the dollar has been stabilized by our government."
Anyways, you can guess what my opinion of his course was (a required course for a lot of majors, and he teaches ~6 courses a semester with ~180 students in each class). So when I saw him at the bar, I said "hey professor ___". He looked over and said, "how do you know me?"
I wanted to say obviously I was one of your students idiot, but all I said was "you know, you should take a look at the Austrian business cycle theory". He just responds, "yeah I have", turns away and keeps hitting on that girl. I wasn't exactly in the mood to get into a debate on economics for a few reasons. One is because I would be doing it with an economics professor, two is because unfortunately I am relatively new to the study of economics and am not completely well educated on the subject (at least now well enough to start this debate with a drunken econ professor).
So later I was talking to some friends, and I feel someone tap my shoulder. I turn around to see the professor. He says, "you mean like Mises, right?" I say yes, and Hayek won a nobel prize for his contribution to the theory. I also add that I have found it to be a satisfactory answer to all the problems we have experienced with Keynes' theory.
He just responds, "oh... okay"
Now, looking back on the experience, I really wish that I had the knowledge to strike up a conversation, I was kicking myself all night for it.
At the very least, if he even remembers it, he may possibly give it another look.
Let me try to give you a brief rundown of what this guy's class was like. He was the most pro-Keynesian person I have ever encountered in my life. Every answer to a student's question, every lecture he gave, every reading assignment and exam question were all so biased it was the closest thing I have ever seen to propaganda.
A few examples:
He dedicated an entire class to a biography of Bernanke (our disgusting textbook was co-written by Helicopter Ben himself). He discussed how the Fed, and particularly Bernanke saved us from suffering the worst depression in history, and how all of us should be praising the great job that he did as fed chairman. A student asked if he would make a good president and my professor said that it would be a good thing if our president was as knowledgeable about economics as Bernanke is.
One time a curious student (I think he might have been a closet Austrian, or at least free market supporter because he was the only one in the class that asked good questions) was asking questions about the gold standard after the professor was telling us how much better off we are now that the link to gold was severed. The student asked what the dollar was backed by, and the professor had this huge grin on his face and said, this is a direct quote, "it's backed by the United State's government. It's really a wonderful thing now the dollar has been stabilized by our government."
Anyways, you can guess what my opinion of his course was (a required course for a lot of majors, and he teaches ~6 courses a semester with ~180 students in each class). So when I saw him at the bar, I said "hey professor ___". He looked over and said, "how do you know me?"
I wanted to say obviously I was one of your students idiot, but all I said was "you know, you should take a look at the Austrian business cycle theory". He just responds, "yeah I have", turns away and keeps hitting on that girl. I wasn't exactly in the mood to get into a debate on economics for a few reasons. One is because I would be doing it with an economics professor, two is because unfortunately I am relatively new to the study of economics and am not completely well educated on the subject (at least now well enough to start this debate with a drunken econ professor).
So later I was talking to some friends, and I feel someone tap my shoulder. I turn around to see the professor. He says, "you mean like Mises, right?" I say yes, and Hayek won a nobel prize for his contribution to the theory. I also add that I have found it to be a satisfactory answer to all the problems we have experienced with Keynes' theory.
He just responds, "oh... okay"
Now, looking back on the experience, I really wish that I had the knowledge to strike up a conversation, I was kicking myself all night for it.
At the very least, if he even remembers it, he may possibly give it another look.
