Bernie Reeves of National Review uses the historic crash of Holland’s tulip market to explain today’s higher ed bubble. It’s an apt comparison.

Tiptoe through the Tulips

Holland’s Tulip Mania in 1637 and the cost of college today have in common the inevitability of a crash. Like a college degree, ownership of the eccentric tulip bulb was a status symbol, enhanced in perceived value by rising prices paid by speculators  across Christendom. In this century, a college degree is largely a status symbol too, touted in study after study as a guarantee of higher earning power despite spiraling costs accompanying a free-fall in intrinsic value.

Owning a sheepskin in the early 21st century is similar to owning a contract for a tulip bulb in the 1630s. Will it keep its value? It didn’t for tulips and will not, in the long run, for college graduates when the cost for a degree surpasses the projected return in salary. Or, business owners figure out that new hires who attended a classy institution of higher learning are unsuited to integration and success in the workplaces of capitalism.

Employers, witnessing  the laughable political views on display at top-tier campuses today, are likely to react negatively. Who wants a New Left or Third Left employee who thinks U.S. wealth is gained by stealing from the Third World; that America is an unsuccessful society foaming with racism, sexism, and homophobia;  that capitalism is evil and exploitative?