Biased professors.
Saturday, May 07, 2005

Biased professors.
Current mood: amused


I finally got my logic paper back yesterday. It is interesting what this welfare-statist professor wrote as comments on it.

First of all, he underlined the sentence "Depending on how good their investment decisions are and how well the economy performs, there is a whole range of possible outcomes they could be faced with. It's possible that they could make less money from private accounts than they could from the current system." Beside that he wrote, "see end". Second, he underlined the phrase "they are trying to increase the freedom of citizens to make decisions about their own retirement, instead of forcing them into a system where they have no control." and wrote beside it "see end". Third, he underlined the sentence "As long as the citizen has the power over his own money, he has nothing to fear" and put a GIGANTIC exclamation point beside that sentence. (look back at the previous blog if you don't remember the context of that sentence) Apparently my professor is SHOCKED that anyone would think that a citizen is better off by being able to make his own decisions. Finally, at the bottom of the page he put the following:

"This is well written, but a bit short. You might have further discussed the social philosophies behind the two main options. Conservatives think that the current system violates the principle that people should take care of themselves. Liberals are more inclined to think that we should take care of each other. Another point: with the private accounts, what would happen if alot of people invest poorly? As a result there could be a significant portion of the population that is poor (even homeless) and old. Would we need to set up a new (expensive) social program to take care of them?"

He gave me 90 points out of 100, then took 10 points off for it being a day late. I made a B. Had he given me 100 and then taken the 10 points off, I still would have made an A. But I suppose I should've gotten the damn thing in on time.

In any event, this has certainly taught me a lesson about being an individualist in a collectivist dominated university system. Next time, maybe I should write in favor of a military draft, on the grounds that young people should be taught the value of "civic duty". I'll bet I'd make 100 no matter how sloppy my arguments were.