Desiring Machine

Interesting article from the New York Times about students rioting over the name of the their University printed on their degree . The summary is that students paid excessive money for a degree from a university that would label their degrees with a prestigious university name, Zhengzhou University, but the students got a raw deal and were granted degrees labelled “Zhengzhou University Shengda Economic, Trade and Management College”. I guess an American equivalent would be something like paying a lot to get a degree that says Harvard School of Business but instead getting a degree that actually read Harvard Business School Training a division of Phoenix University Online.

This whole episode is fascinating in that it shows how crazy things are in China. Who knew that a little truth in advertising law might be the spark that brings on the revolution? I don’t really have a lot of sympathy for the students in this case. Who goes into massive debt to acquire a phony degree? I guess we are fortunate in the USA because we have a well established State college and university system that is well respected. Sure going to Harvard or Stanford is important but not that important, given the strength of our entire university system and moreover the strength of our economy. This is one area where America has done well in distributing wealth and providing many outlets for a quality education. Although we do have elitism, which is a bit more rampant on the east coast with their fetish of the Ivy League.

I have always felt that China and India have huge structural problems that will not be easy to overcome even with their economic growth. Even with all the fear of outsourcing in this country I am confident that we are not in any real threat of being outdone by China or India economically in the long term. Globalization certainly has it victims, and the massive decimation of the American manufacturing base is nothing to sneeze at. But many of these issues can be solved politically, and by applying pressure on our governments and corporations to respect human rights and decent labor laws and environmental standards at home and abroad. And Americans need to ween themselves from the excessive profits and benefits of cheap labor, whether it is the groceries we purchase or the cheap plastics in our shoes, laptops and iPods.