Greg Mankiw had a walk out of his class. Here is the open letter from the protesters.
A legitimate academic study of economics must include a critical discussion of both the benefits and flaws of different economic simplifying models. As your class does not include primary sources and rarely featurearticles from academic journals, we have very little access to alternative approaches to economics. There is no justification for presenting Adam Smith’s economic theories as more fundamental or basic than, forexample, Keynesian theory.
If only they knew how stupid that makes them sound. If those individuals pass the subject, or graduate from Harvard it will be a very poor reflection on the institution.
Update: Bryan Caplan asks the question.
If you were an employer, would you want to hire an Occupy Wall Street protester? Probably not. In fact, it’s hard to imagine an employer seeing a protester on TV, then thinking, “I’ve got to hire him!” Protesters are arguably showing off some traits that employers value, like IQ, initiative, teamwork, and determination. But they are also showing off many traits that employers avoid: A can’t-do attitude, eagerness to blame others, non-conformity, and defiance.
More on this here, here and here.
Don
3 Nov 11 at 7:56 pm
The link doesn’t work, sinc.
[Thanks, Fixed. Sinc]
JC
3 Nov 11 at 7:57 pm
So out of 700 students, 70 are rude dickheads. That seems about right. Coincidentally the Greens get 10% of the vote.
Infidel Tiger
3 Nov 11 at 8:03 pm
Well clearly I’d never cut it at Harvard, for when I was 18, I thought I was way too naive and ignorant to compete with those who already knew it all.
But one skill I had developed at age 18 is being able to spot a total, like, tool.
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2011/11/2/mankiw-walkout-economics-10/
Peter Patton
3 Nov 11 at 8:08 pm
You go to Harvard, you arseholes.
Infidel Tiger
3 Nov 11 at 8:11 pm
This from one of the students does say it all:
Steve Kates
3 Nov 11 at 8:11 pm
Greg Mankiw’s post: Occupy Wall Street comes to Ec 10
Don
3 Nov 11 at 8:13 pm
No doubt they will be fleeing Gender Studies 101 because of its anti-science bias, and on and on…
Peter Patton
3 Nov 11 at 8:15 pm
A student stunt. And it becomes world news?
In my day….
ken n
3 Nov 11 at 8:22 pm
I read Mankiw and thought it was a soft, yielding defence of big Government Keynesianism.
.
3 Nov 11 at 8:38 pm
i’m sorry ……… all his “favourite textbooks” are his own ??? ( Mr Mankiw I refer to here) ….
hzhousewife
3 Nov 11 at 8:39 pm
These tools are paying how much for a Havard education and they want to use their time telling their teachers they know better????
I wish the reporter asked them on their view on skepticism on AGW and where they stand on the science being taught.
Token
3 Nov 11 at 8:48 pm
I wish my students would make an official complaint against me that I didn’t make them read enough academic articles. Actually, even just make them read would be good.
conrad
3 Nov 11 at 9:04 pm
Fuck me, I had to cop macroeconomics 1 from an unreconstructed pre 1970s Keynesian who nearly failed me in an economic history course because I only wrote about lasseiz faire economists…(there was no requirement to do otherwise). These little shit faced turds ought to do some action research with some successful immigrants and then belt up their trash holes.
.
3 Nov 11 at 9:08 pm
I think it’s bad enough that Harvard let them in! One lesson I’ve learnt in my life is that ego is the biggest obstacle to all forms of progress. These protesters clearly have the Harvard ego without the brains to back it up.
Sleetmute
3 Nov 11 at 10:11 pm
A quote from the open letter. I bet Professor Margolin’s class would be a real corker!
Do you think they are really whinging about having to take Mankiw’s class this year when they would rather take the class reflecting their own bias:-)
Johno
3 Nov 11 at 10:20 pm
Bar them from tertiary education forever. They’ve proven they’re unfit for it. They can fucking fill holes in the road for the rest of their lives. Get your kicks on Route 666.
perturbed
3 Nov 11 at 10:33 pm
[...] Un-occupy: Nearly 70 students walked out of Greg Mankiw’s economics class at Harvard on Wednesday afternoon. According to the Harvard Crimson’s Jose Delreal, "The walkout was meant to be a show of support for the ‘Occupy’ movement’s principal criticism that conservative economic policies have increased income inequality in the United States." Sinclair Davidson comments. [...]
Club Troppo » Missing Link Friday – Lies, liberty & inequality
4 Nov 11 at 9:13 am
The students are right on the money that neoclassical and monetarist economics only offer a limited perspective on the subject and if they’re not being directed to others as well they’re missing out. I think economic history or at least the history of economic ideas are a much better grounding than a bunch of equations that wonderfully describe a fictitious abstraction.
Dan
4 Nov 11 at 10:14 am
[...] Un-occupy: Nearly 70 students walked out of Greg Mankiw’s economics class at Harvard on Wednesday afternoon. According to the Harvard Crimson’s Jose Delreal, “The walkout was meant to be a show of support for the ‘Occupy’ movement’s principal criticism that conservative economic policies have increased income inequality in the United States.” Sinclair Davidson comments. [...]
Missing Link Friday – Lies, liberty and inequality « CDU Law and Business Online
4 Nov 11 at 10:22 am
Given they are hardly going to teach Austrian economics, the other theories will be a further waste of time anyway.
Sean
4 Nov 11 at 10:24 am
If this is our best and brightest, the Anglosphere is sooo screwed…
How did it come to this?
Winston Smith
4 Nov 11 at 11:20 am
And what’s with the obsession with the minimum wage in macro courses? The last one I did had an exam question that went something like “examine the pros and cons of a legislated minimum wage”, which was pretty straightforward, as it was straight from the textbook!
Peter Patton
4 Nov 11 at 10:52 pm
deniers.
Jim Rose
4 Nov 11 at 11:05 pm