An economics, investment, trading and policy blog with a focus on Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). We seek the truth, avoid the mainstream and are virulently anti-neoliberalism.
The solution those in favour of the voucher system present to climb from this massive PISA drop is more measuring, control and inspection of schools, pupils and teachers, which we had _less_ of when Sweden was ranked among the top 5 in PISA. Back then Swedish education system was described as muddled and wishy-washy in spite the good results.
Well we had a fair shair of Friedmanite groupies here in Sweden in the early 1990s.They did lot of harm indeed. This idea was one their main contributes. Here is a good read on on them, Not So Free to Choose: The Political Economy of Milton Friedman and Ronald Reagan Elton Rayack http://www.stat.uchicago.edu/~amit/MFI/NSFTC.html
The book ends with the following quote from the Nobel Laureate Economist Keneth Arrow in his review of Friedman's book Free to Choose
"As Friedman himself is so fond of quoting, there is no such thing as a free lunch. In policy terms, this means that every policy change is bound to do some harm somewhere. Yet in his popular writings there is little sense of qualifications. In this, as in the earlier Capitalism and Freedom, both written jointly with Rose Friedman, there is very little suggestion that their very large redirections of policy could possibly have any negative consequences. Government regulations of all sorts - occupational licensing, social security, public education - are all to be commited to the bonfire. There is no sense that there may be any real losses as well as possible gains to these drastic changes.
It may be that I am demanding professional standards of a book for popular consumption... But in my view, the responsibilities of the economist (or any other scholar) for fairness, ``two handedness,'' are greater when writing for the general public than when writing for his colleagues, who are knowledgeable and can notice omissions."
3 comments:
The solution those in favour of the voucher system present to climb from this massive PISA drop is more measuring, control and inspection of schools, pupils and teachers, which we had _less_ of when Sweden was ranked among the top 5 in PISA.
Back then Swedish education system was described as muddled and wishy-washy in spite the good results.
Well we had a fair shair of Friedmanite groupies here in Sweden in the early 1990s.They did lot of harm indeed. This idea was one their main contributes. Here is a good read on on them,
Not So Free to Choose: The Political Economy of Milton Friedman and Ronald Reagan
Elton Rayack http://www.stat.uchicago.edu/~amit/MFI/NSFTC.html
Thnaks. Jan. Looks like a good read.
Here's a clickable link.
http://www.stat.uchicago.edu/~amit/MFI/NSFTC.html
The book ends with the following quote from the Nobel Laureate Economist Keneth Arrow in his review of Friedman's book Free to Choose
"As Friedman himself is so fond of quoting, there is no such thing as a free lunch. In policy terms, this means that every policy change is bound to do some harm somewhere. Yet in his popular writings there is little sense of qualifications. In this, as in the earlier Capitalism and Freedom, both written jointly with Rose Friedman, there is very little suggestion that their very large redirections of policy could possibly have any negative consequences. Government regulations of all sorts - occupational licensing, social security, public education - are all to be commited to the bonfire. There is no sense that there may be any real losses as well as possible gains to these drastic changes.
It may be that I am demanding professional standards of a book for popular consumption... But in my view, the responsibilities of the economist (or any other scholar) for fairness, ``two handedness,'' are greater when writing for the general public than when writing for his colleagues, who are knowledgeable and can notice omissions."
Kenneth Arrow, New Republic, 186 March 22, 1980.
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