Reading: Krugman on "graduates and oligarchs"

Paul Krugman has managed to tie a note to a rock and lob it over the Times Select firewall so the rest of us can read it. I'm adding it to the p3 Readings list in the sidebar.

Krugman's topic is the comforting argument that education is an engine that is, as one of its unwanted side-effects, contributing to the widening income inequality gap in America--a comforting argument, but alas, a false one:

The notion that it's all about returns to education suggests that nobody is to blame for rising inequality, that it's just a case of supply and demand at work. And it also suggests that the way to mitigate inequality is to improve our educational system - and better education is a value to which just about every politician in America pays at least lip service.

The idea that we have a rising oligarchy is much more disturbing. It suggests that the growth of inequality may have as much to do with power relations as it does with market forces. Unfortunately, that's the real story.

In the last three decades, the average earnings of college grads has all-but-stalled, while the average earnings of those people at the 90th percentile, and the 99th, and the 99.9th . . . well, you can guess (although you'll probably guess low). And, Paul being Paul, he's got the numbers to back the real story up.

(Update: And although the connection was obvious to me as I wrote, I neglected to mention my earlier post this morning about Republican looting of higher education at students' expense.)