America's Biggest Threat

My "Running for President" column sparked quite a reaction from local businessman Loren Aschbrenner. You can read it here. I also received two thoughtful responses. One from Flexial President Rick Larsen was posted in the Comments section below. The other was from my TTU colleague Mohamed Abdelrahman. This is my response that was published in the Herald Citizen on February 17.

America’s Biggest Threat

I’ve been asked several times if I was going to respond to Loren Aschbrenner’s letter regarding my last column. I didn’t really think it was necessary. Mr. Aschbrenner believes that defense-related manufacturing needs to remain in the United States.

I agree and never said anything differently. My point was that all manufacturing (regardless of what it is or where it’s done) will gradually require fewer people. America will therefore have fewer manufacturing jobs. That’s what we need to prepare for.

It was a simple misunderstanding and easily clarified.

But one part of his letter nagged me all week. Mr. Aschbrenner wrote: “I guess the old adage is true…Those who can’t do, teach.”

Yes, I find this personally offensive, but I’ve been called much worse on RateMyProfessors.com.

What bothered me the most about his comment was that he didn’t just insult me. He insulted all teachers, so I decided to respond on their behalf.

Besides being insulting, the old adage is just plain wrong. A study published just last August found that companies managed by former business school professors perform better than similar companies without former educators.

Another study found that finance professors did a better job predicting loan defaults than professional loan officers.

There are many other examples, but the old adage is simply a myth.
Besides insulting and wrong, however, I believe the old adage is also dangerous. It’s dangerous because of its underlying message.

If teachers are people who lack the competence to perform what they teach, then the education they provide obviously has very little value.

If I were an enemy of the United States, what would I want American citizens to believe? I would want them to believe that education is not valuable.

A good educational system doesn’t simply train people to operate machines.

Instead, a good educational system equips and inspires people to create, design, and innovate. This type of educational system inspires innovation that leads to economic prosperity (even defense-related).

If I were an enemy of the US, I would want its citizens to believe that the best use of their time and energy is to spend 40 hours a week stamping metal, sewing underwear, assembling bombs, and watching TV. Not only does this activity keep millions of people from innovating, but it also makes them economically dependent on the people who own the metal stamping machines.

Mr. Aschbrenner’s idea that education is not valuable is not shared by the Chinese. Between 1998 and 2004, the number of Chinese enrolled in college jumped by 4300 percent. In the US, the number increased by about 19 percent.

Mr. Aschbrenner’s myth is apparently alive and well in Tennessee. We rank in the bottom 10 with respect to the percentage of our population with a college degree. Is it just a coincidence that the gap between the wealthiest Tennesseans and the poorest Tennesseans is the 6th largest gap in the country?

The warped idea that I teach my students is that they can either spend their lives making the metal stamping machine owner wealthier, or they can spend their lives creating their own opportunities and wealth.

So I can understand why Mr. Aschbrenner would want to perpetuate the myth. But my suggestion that the loss of bad jobs wouldn’t be so bad is far less dangerous than the idea that “Those who can’t do, teach.”