New Hampshire — ranked #1 in freedom — ranks 50th in the level of education of its legislators.As you may recall, we addressed this here.
I commend the Althouse blog post to you.
There is the question of the difference between correlation and causation. Then there is the question of if this might be telling us something about the people we elect to our legislatures. Looking at our four here in Lowell, The one with the least education is perhaps the most conservative. If we assume that the George Mason analysis suggests a relationship between "conservative" values (whatever that means) and freedom, as they define it, then we can see how more "conservative" (I would call them "classical liberals") are correlated with more freedom.
That, in turn, might lead us to ask if there is a correlation in terms of type of education. How many of our legislators have a liberal arts degree and how many have engineering degrees. That might be interesting to know. Not that it would be definitive for each individual legislator, but because it might help us to think about the impact of education on individuals.
The initial report is usually not the definitive answer, but could well be the start of an interesting discussion.
Regards — Cliff
I think it is worth pointing out that one of Althouse's seemingly main points is that lawyers make laws that are much more restrictive of personal freedom than non-lawyers. Of course, one might well, as you suggest, assemble a list of various college degrees and try to index conservatism (meaning more individual freedom in this case) to each. I suspect that such an exercise would be more philosophical than practical.
ReplyDeleteNH has the greatest number of representatives in the House than any other state. This allows for a much broader, and dare I say complete, representation of grass roots views. These representatives are largely "just plain folk" vice professional politicians who are steeped in the ways of statehouse process. One might, at least from our north and western counties and towns suggest that many are just uneducated "country bumpkins" who while them may not have a lot of education, are well endowed with common sense.....an ability to divine "what works" and be happy with it.....unsophisticated as it may be.
And perhaps, it is that very essence of the population that makes NH live free......the natives just don't want to become sophisticated and "citified" no matter how genteel that may be.
BTW....I am a NH transplant...having been born and raised in the socialist state of WA. That I was raised on the "unwashed eastern side" of WA state may well have been Divine preparation for my eventual life as a NH resident.
I did think that the questions asked of GOP debaters last night were...well....articulate....