Because I Can

Bryan Caplan writes

Arnold writes:

I carry around an entrepreneurial idea of an American equivalent of the "gap year," which would be a year of education in between high school and college. This year would involve finding a part-time job, living in and
cleaning an apartment, learning to cook one's own meals (and pick out fresh ingredients to go into that cooking), learning personal finance, learning something about household wiring and plumbing, and taking courses in philosophy and mathematics. I have not found a single person who doubts that this would be better for young people than the typical college freshman experience.

Maybe Arnold's "gap year" would be better for the young person's soul. But
would it actually be a prudent unilateral course of action? I very much doubt
it. After your gap year, you'd still have to do a regular four-year degree to
signal that you've got the Right Stuff. Unless the world changes a lot,
employers are going to treat the gap year like a gap in your resume, nothing
more. And are household management skills so difficult that people can't learn
them by doing once they get their first real job and their own apartment?

Point by point, Arnold's gap year.

finding a part-time job,
Many people do this in high school. Some people get summer jobs. Some people do this in college. If it's a way to make money, worthwhile, and accessible, then you'll see it happen.

living in and cleaning an apartment,
Living in an apartment is like living in a house except it's not as big. To clean it, you still use a vacuum cleaner, a toilet brush, a mop, some cleaning chemicals, etc. You should know something about how to clean a house if you ever lived in one, even if you were a kid. Parents who aren't worthless as human beings have their kids do chores at some point. If your parents get a maid when you're young, they're doing you a disservice, and wasting money too.

learning to cook one's own meals (and pick out fresh ingredients to go into that cooking),
You can learn this young too, and it's best with parental supervision anyway. But honestly, give the kid a damn cookbook. It's not that hard, really.

learning personal finance,
Very simple lesson. YOU ARE NOT THE GODDAMN FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. YOU CAN ONLY SPEND MONEY YOU HAVE. This involves such advanced skills as COUNTING YOUR DAMN MONEY and KEEPING TRACK OF HOW MUCH YOU SPEND. Then it gets harder when it gets to PAYING YOUR BILLS ON TIME, which of course involves such skills as WRITING NUMBERS and READING A CALENDAR. But ultimately, YOU ARE NOT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT sums the whole thing up. As for investing and that sort of thing, a lot of it is common sense, but you can read up on that on the internet. But nobody does that before graduating college anyway.

learning something about household wiring and plumbing,
Household wiring? I guess you mean how to handle a bad fuse, or as is more often the case, how to flip the switch on a circuit breaker. Or maybe DON'T PLUG IN 80 THINGS IN ONE OUTLET. Every college student should know stereo wiring by buying a stereo. As for plumbing, there's flushing a toilet, jiggling the handle, and knowing the back of the toilet. Stuff to pick up when you live at home in MIDDLE SCHOOL.

and taking courses in philosophy and mathematics.
People need to learn more math. But where do you take courses? Oh, I don't know . . . IN SCHOOL?! Maybe instead of taking a year off, you should try learning math in school. Philosophy, as we all know, is useful in trying to impress people while talking to them, but is ultimately worthelss, particularly as a job skill.

Caplan's desire to be polite is sickening. Maybe it's good for the young person's soul? (Well, what's an atheist gonna know about the soul anyway :-p ) Forget the signaling. How worthless is one if he has to take a year off because he had adolescence and never grew up? That's not good for the soul; it's good for making you pathetic, disgraceful, a loser, and aware of it. It's about as good for the soul as constantly referring to the driver's manual every single time you come to a 4 way stop. The only people who would need this would be the ones who were Billy Madison, in such a case it would be better for their soul than mooching of their parents the rest of their lives. But otherwise, it's pretty damn worthless.

If Kling were genuinely entrepreneural, he'd institutionalize this and create a rigorous program. But as an idea to try on your own, no way.

Addendum: I can understand this if you've had some problems you need to straighten out, or if you're going to do something like pay your own way through college. But for a more typical case, where the student goes to school and is at least partially(and more often fully) supported by parents, my case stands.

Labels: Economic Stuff, Losers