The Education Handicap
I started to title this post “Polls on Trump”; but decided that meme needed a rest. 🙂
Besides, my interest in the fascinating LA Times piece entitled, “Polls may actually underestimate Trump’s support, study finds” is to comment on the often mentioned polling difference, between those with and without a college degree. Researchers ran an interesting experiment, to study why Trump’s poll numbers were always higher in online polling, than in traditional telephone surveys:
The most telling part of the experiment, however, was that not all types of people responded the same way. Among blue-collar Republicans, who have formed the core of Trump’s support, the polls were about the same regardless of method. But among college-educated Republicans, a bigger difference appeared, with Trump scoring 9 points better in the online poll.
Social-desirability bias — the well-known tendency of people to hesitate to confess certain unpopular views to a pollster — provides the most likely explanation for that education gap, Dropp and his colleagues believe.
Blue-collar voters don’t feel embarrassed about supporting Trump, who is very popular in their communities. But many college-educated Republicans hesitate to admit their attraction to the blustery New York billionaire, the experiment indicates.
That finding suggests that the online surveys, which show Trump with a larger lead, provide the more accurate measure of what people would do in the anonymity of a voting booth, Dropp said. That might not be as true, however, in a public setting such as the Iowa caucus, where people identify their candidate preference in front of friends and neighbors.
“It’s our sense that a lot of polls are under-reporting Trump’s overall support,” he said.
In other words, college educated folks lie to protect their self-image as sophisticates, while truthful working class folks are not at all embarrassed by their judgements.
Every time I see an article touting the polling difference between those with or without college degrees, I am left with the impression that the writer is suggesting that those with degrees are ‘smarter’ or more ‘sophisticated’ than the ‘uneducated’ rubes out in the sticks. Of course, with my autodidact’s biases, I see it the other way around. It has been my experience in life, that those individuals spending four or more years of their life under the stultifying influence of Marxist professors, have generally had any opportunity to develop critical thinking skills and common sense brainwashed right out of them.
Those in my generation got a better education in 12 years, than the kids today manage to acquire in 16. Then, they had an extra 4 years to develop invaluable survival skills and common sense, while working at various jobs toward establishing a worthwhile trade/career of some sort, to support a family in a middleclass lifestyle. I would infinitely prefer that we hired tough minded, working class, tradesmen and such with common sense (think Joe the Plumber), for our political posts, than emotionally sensitive, Yale indoctrinated, lawyers and social studies majors (think John Kerry). Wouldn’t you? â—„Daveâ–º
Enter the “educated idiot”. The biggest problem with government is that it’s run by lawyers, and not even good ones for the most part. Any lawyer worth a darn can make five times what a politician makes. Legally anyway.
In many ways I feel sorry for some college educated folks I know. The people who have to take their car in and pay $600 bucks for new brakes because they haven’t got a clue past putting in gas and turning the key. They pay thousands of dollars for home repair and construction. Over the years I have saved tens of thousands of dollars fixing my own cars. I have built my own garages and home additions as well as remodeling and had them pass inspectors code saving probably over $100 thousand. Money saved is money earned. I was a mechanic in a past life but also self taught prior to taking it up as a living. I have never worked in construction yet usually did a bang up job. None of it is rocket science. I guess my point is that one does not have to be formally trained in anything to be able to perform to standards. A will to do it and maybe work a little harder to get up to speed is all that’s needed. One of the greatest presidents was self educated. Can’t tell me he had an easy go of it.
Well said, Chris. I hadn’t even considered how much being handy with tools has saved me over the years.
Most of our early politicians had little or no formal education. Ben Franklin became a printer’s apprentice at age 12. George Washington was already working full time as the county surveyor at age 16. Not being dumbed down by Marxists, probably explains the brilliance of their work product. 🙂 â—„Daveâ–º
I truly believe that my lack of formal education was the best thing that could have happened. In the first place, I had never learned all the things that I could NOT do, therefore did most of them without a second thought. Of course, the necessity provided by near poverty also helped.
Having said that, I still think that REAL education (as opposed to indoctrination) is a wonderful thing and I wish I could have had a bit of it.
Try to imagine what our founding documents might have looked like had Jefferson, Madison and Adams (among others) not had the grand classical educations they had. And, in spite of all three having trained in the law (snicker here).
Troy
The Vietnam war is what saved me. While I had always taken college-prep courses in high school, with the draft inevitable after a college deferment, I cleverly decided to get my obligation over with before starting college, and then use the GI Bill to pay for it.
However, for three years in the Army, I never met a college educated officer that had a lick of common sense. Then, by the time I got out in ’66, the college kids were into anti-war protests while being stoned on pot. I decided I didn’t want to risk my mind in such a toxic environment, so I never enrolled.
Like you, I consider that to be one of the smarter moves in my life. Cashing in on my electronics experience from the Army, I took a tech-rep job with Philco, and started earning a lot more money (tax-free in overseas assignments) than most college graduates even dreamed of making. 🙂
Yes, had the educational opportunities our Founders were blessed with been available to me, I would have loved to have experienced them. They were studying with tutors in Latin, Greek, and French before they were teenagers, and entered college at about 16. All three you mentioned had graduated by the time they were 20-years-old, with individual minds trained in how to think, not in how to complaisantly conform with the herd.
With the availability of the internet, such a classical education is now available to the autodidact almost for free. If there were only a way to convince parents to avail themselves of such for their children, rather than condemn them to public schooling, which I often lament is a most egregious form of child abuse. 🙁 â—„Daveâ–º
Best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral, winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most joyous traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, but with respect for the religious persuasion of others who choose to practice their own religion as well as those who choose not to practice a religion at all;
Additionally,
a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the generally accepted calendar year 2000, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions have helped make our society great, without regard to the race, creed, color, religious, or sexual preferences of the wishes.
(Disclaimer: This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others and no responsibility for any unintended emotional stress these greetings may bring to those not caught up in the holiday spirit.)
Yea, right!
Merry Christmas to all my friends at Thoughts Aloud
LOL !! Merry Christmas to you and yours, Chris! Personally, I rather enjoy saying that to all I encounter this time of year, and dropping all my change in a Salvation Army Kettle. Do have a good one, my friend. 🙂 â—„Daveâ–º