Comment by analog31

1 day ago

To counter that, though without a precise economic analysis, both university admissions and employment grew during the affirmative action era.

Everything looks like zero-sum if viewed as a static, local model.

It's only positive sum if they grew because of affirmative action. And if affirmative action caused net friction, it'd be a Moloch.

  • Are you assuming elite college admission counts are rigid in the count of people admitted because of real teaching constraints or reducing the supply of prestige?

    • None of my arguments require any assumption on why. But I would say that it's because of prestige and signaling.

University admission is arguably bad for society.

(See Caplan's Case Against Education.)