Courses

Matthew McCaffrey

Postdoctoral Fellow

University of Illinois at Springfield

Matthew McCaffrey is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Liberal and Integrative Studies at the University of Illinois at Springfield. He holds a PhD in economics from the University of Angers, an MS in economics from Auburn University, and a BA in literature from Colorado State University. His research focuses on entrepreneurship, strategy, moral hazard, and the history of economic thought. He is also the editor of the academic journal Libertarian Papers, and blogs at the Mises Economics blog.

Blog Posts

The political left’s shmoo theory of education

January 25, 2017
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Education

“Uneducated” is the favorite insult and excuse of the political left. In the past year alone, for example, a lack of education among voters has been used to explain each of the left’s electoral failures, as well as to dismiss criticisms of its people, policies, and institutions. These defenses are dubious to say the least. Yet setting aside the strategic choices of left-wing political groups, the obsession with un-education reveals that there are serious problems with the way education is understood by the intellectual classes. Most importantly, the popular use of the word “education”