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I hate being the typical negative commenter who points out that correlation doesn't equal causation, but in the case of this article I think it's warranted. Ju

I hate being the typical negative commenter who points out that correlation doesn't equal causation, but in the case of this article I think it's warranted. Just because high-income families send kids to college more does not mean that high income causes it. A recent study of Swedish lottery winners showed that the kids of lottery winners did not do better on measures of health or education, suggesting that wealth does not have a direct or short-term impact on child outcomes. [http://www.ifn.se/eng/publications/wp/2015/1060 http://www.ifn.se/eng/publications/wp/2015/1060]

mfringel 11y ago
So... why are you doing something you hate?
- tedsanders 11y ago
  That's a fair question. When many people make the correlation!=causation argument, they do so to express skepticism, often without any evidence or positive contribution to the discussion. However, in this case, I think the argument is warranted because there is a large body of evidence that suggests wealth does not directly affect whether kids go to college. I linked to one interesting study, but I can link to more if you'd like. In any case, I hoped my comment and link added value to the discussion. If not, I'd be happy to remove them.
itsybitsycoder 11y ago
I was surprised that nearly 95% of the children of the highest-income earners went to college, especially with everyone talking nowadays about all the good career options that don't require any college education at all. (Trade school, entrepreneurship, etc.) Then I thought about (what I believe to be) the typical person at very top of the income scale. Someone who has not only a lot of wealth in terms of money, but also reputation, connections, favors owed, etc. For a kid with parents like that, the easiest start for many of them may be to get a degree from a prestigious school and then have their parents call in some favors or sign on with the family business. Lottery winners are in a totally different life situation from the rest of the wealthy, so I don't think lottery winner results are generally applicable like that.
thoth 11y ago
That may be true in Sweden, but perhaps there are other reasons that health and education aren't strongly correlated to wealth... for Sweden. Sweden is famous for its public services (funded through high taxes), so their citizens receive free/low-cost health and education anyway. Thus, wealth isn't as big a factor for receiving those services as it is in other countries. Pointing out correlation doensn't equal causation is fine, but drawing conclusion from another country and translating back to the U.S. while ignoring significant differences isn't correct either.
curun1r 11y ago
The causation is probably the reverse. Parents who send their kids to college make more money. And that's possibly indirect through the fact that people who go to college earn more money, so we're probably seeing the effect of having well-educated parents. It would be really interesting to see if income plays a part once you control for parental education levels. Segment by both parents have college degrees, one parent has a degree and neither parent has a degree. We'd probably see a much weaker correlation with income at that point.

mfringel 11y ago

So... why are you doing something you hate?

tedsanders 11y ago
That's a fair question. When many people make the correlation!=causation argument, they do so to express skepticism, often without any evidence or positive contribution to the discussion. However, in this case, I think the argument is warranted because there is a large body of evidence that suggests wealth does not directly affect whether kids go to college. I linked to one interesting study, but I can link to more if you'd like. In any case, I hoped my comment and link added value to the discussion. If not, I'd be happy to remove them.

itsybitsycoder 11y ago

I was surprised that nearly 95% of the children of the highest-income earners went to college, especially with everyone talking nowadays about all the good career options that don't require any college education at all. (Trade school, entrepreneurship, etc.) Then I thought about (what I believe to be) the typical person at very top of the income scale. Someone who has not only a lot of wealth in terms of money, but also reputation, connections, favors owed, etc. For a kid with parents like that, the easiest start for many of them may be to get a degree from a prestigious school and then have their parents call in some favors or sign on with the family business. Lottery winners are in a totally different life situation from the rest of the wealthy, so I don't think lottery winner results are generally applicable like that.

thoth 11y ago

That may be true in Sweden, but perhaps there are other reasons that health and education aren't strongly correlated to wealth... for Sweden. Sweden is famous for its public services (funded through high taxes), so their citizens receive free/low-cost health and education anyway. Thus, wealth isn't as big a factor for receiving those services as it is in other countries. Pointing out correlation doensn't equal causation is fine, but drawing conclusion from another country and translating back to the U.S. while ignoring significant differences isn't correct either.

curun1r 11y ago

The causation is probably the reverse. Parents who send their kids to college make more money. And that's possibly indirect through the fact that people who go to college earn more money, so we're probably seeing the effect of having well-educated parents. It would be really interesting to see if income plays a part once you control for parental education levels. Segment by both parents have college degrees, one parent has a degree and neither parent has a degree. We'd probably see a much weaker correlation with income at that point.