I am a reader of Prof Mankiw's blog and there are times I agree and times I disagree. But today there was a comment that I just down right disagree with, for it is classic elitist. He says:
"the above graph, showing that kids from higher income families get higher average SAT scores. Of course! But so what? This fact tells us nothing about the causal impact of income on test scores...The key omitted variable here is parents' IQ. Smart parents make more money and pass those good genes on to their offspring...."
As to the above statement I disagree, I strongly disagree. Having been involved in the early days of the MIT Minority Student program, "MITES", in the summer of 1974, and having taken on many of the students from that program over the years, having seen their careers, grow and succeed. having gone to their weddings, attended the funerals of their parents, I saw in them the same challenges that I had going to school in New York City fifty years ago where I was denied admission to Columbia University because I was a Catholic. These minority students came from poor homes, and their parent were poor not because as Professor Mankiw alleges they were dumb. They were poor because of circumstance. When I was at MIT, not Harvard, we had many first generation students, and the typical SAT score was 1500 or higher. That was when 1500 was a real hard number to get. And yest they were 800 Math and 700 Verbal.
Thus Prof Mankiw's allegation that only smart people make money and thus that is why there is a correlation, one misses the point that many smart people have dumb offspring, the list is too long to even mention, and many more poor people have very smart children! If Professor Mankiw had a little experience in genetics, alas my day job, he would better understand the emptiness of his allegation.
As to my students, many were immigrants, many from single parent families, and where are they today. Physicians, running their own international businesses, and major investment bankers in South Africa, a real challenge. I am proud of those students, and we stay close. What characterizes all of them is that they went into business, with the exception of the physicians, and they created jobs for many thousands of others. They did not hide in the halls of academia. According to Prof Mankiw they should never had even had the chance. Pity they went to MIT, did get the chance, and are giving back to many by creating jobs, the only way to truly create value.
"the above graph, showing that kids from higher income families get higher average SAT scores. Of course! But so what? This fact tells us nothing about the causal impact of income on test scores...The key omitted variable here is parents' IQ. Smart parents make more money and pass those good genes on to their offspring...."
As to the above statement I disagree, I strongly disagree. Having been involved in the early days of the MIT Minority Student program, "MITES", in the summer of 1974, and having taken on many of the students from that program over the years, having seen their careers, grow and succeed. having gone to their weddings, attended the funerals of their parents, I saw in them the same challenges that I had going to school in New York City fifty years ago where I was denied admission to Columbia University because I was a Catholic. These minority students came from poor homes, and their parent were poor not because as Professor Mankiw alleges they were dumb. They were poor because of circumstance. When I was at MIT, not Harvard, we had many first generation students, and the typical SAT score was 1500 or higher. That was when 1500 was a real hard number to get. And yest they were 800 Math and 700 Verbal.
Thus Prof Mankiw's allegation that only smart people make money and thus that is why there is a correlation, one misses the point that many smart people have dumb offspring, the list is too long to even mention, and many more poor people have very smart children! If Professor Mankiw had a little experience in genetics, alas my day job, he would better understand the emptiness of his allegation.
As to my students, many were immigrants, many from single parent families, and where are they today. Physicians, running their own international businesses, and major investment bankers in South Africa, a real challenge. I am proud of those students, and we stay close. What characterizes all of them is that they went into business, with the exception of the physicians, and they created jobs for many thousands of others. They did not hide in the halls of academia. According to Prof Mankiw they should never had even had the chance. Pity they went to MIT, did get the chance, and are giving back to many by creating jobs, the only way to truly create value.
Posts
