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wasoxygen  ·  2180 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Review of Bryan Caplan’s The Case Against Education

Lately I've learned to feel less bad about not reading these "policy" books. Sure, it's arguably better to read every chapter of Capital in the Twenty-First Century than look at animated gifs, but by consuming a variety of reviews, blog arguments, and interviews I can get a pretty good idea of the contents (as well as I would remember some time after reading, anyway) and also a rounded view of how the arguments were received and criticized. Mainly, I can enjoy exposure to a lot more books, and when the content-to-length ratio seems high enough I'll read it anyway.

Caplan got a lot of traction in the circles I follow, and some from a wider audience; he wished for more in Leftist Lessons of The Case Against Education. I picked this review because it gave the most complete synopsis of the book that I have seen, and was also remarkable for the way the book anticipated the objections in the review.

The wishful thinking about where Ed dollars could be better spent seems like a weak point on both sides.