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So it sounds like you're saying the real scam is pretending that degrees have value?

• snarf21 8y ago
  I'd phrase GP response as saying we attribute too much value on some degrees and not enough on others. They all have some (nominal?) value but we don't spend the time to figure it out and just shorthand it based on the "quality" of the school. The presumption is that these schools only let in the best so you can trust their stamp of approval but this scandal shows that is folly.
• hangonhn 8y ago
  It can become a self-fullfilling prophecy: if most people believe that degrees have value, then the people who compete for those spots at "elite" colleges will go up, then the pool of high quality candidate goes up. Because the elite schools have the pick of the litter, the chances that their student body and thus their graduates will be successful goes up. This reinforces the perception that the degrees have value and the cycle repeats. I think an accident of history has started this cycle and it's going to endure for quite a while. It's akin to Silicon Valley: engineers think that being in SV helps them be successful and join the next rocketship. Startups get drawn to SV because they think SV is where the magic happens. Because the pool of talent and opportunities meet in SV, it reinforces the perception that SV is magic.
  • craftinator 8y ago
    I think you hit on the way economists define "value"; value is derived from people believing something is valuable. Take gold or diamonds for example, which were highly valued before they even had industrial usages. Yes, both are pretty and are rare; however, there are many other equally pretty/rare things that weren't valued as highly. The only value they had was from perception, and that made the value real.