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As Scott points out, the "free market" doesn't have alot of need for anthropology majors. If it did, then it wouldn't be on the chopping block. Florida won't defund aquatic biology, just like Oklahoma won't defund Indian Studies and Texas won't defund petroleum engineering. It makes sense to fund what contributes to your state and defund those that don't during tough economic times. Your analysis of my statement is a strawman.
So, you actually do believe that government can pick winners and losers in an economy?
Now if the argument that the State of Florida was going to end funding for anthropology because there wasn't the demand to support the department... you might have an argument but to believe that the governor, or the university can in effect decrease the market of anthropologist because it has determined that the demand for anthropologist, not the market, isn't much different than how the Soviets ran their educational system. Now the merits of such an approach is open for debate, but to argue that it is some how different than how socialist countries operate would be just an out and out lie. So the question remains, when did you become a socialist.
By the way, my personal view is that universities aren't vocational schools, they aren't just another program for producing human widgets, they are places to advance knowledge whether that knowledge is readily transferable to the private sector or not. But then again this is just another example of Stupidification of the U.S. by the anti-intellectual know nothings otherwise known as Republicans.
A state funded university has every right to evaluate and decide if the state's interest is being served by the universities it funds. Some academia may believe the universities should serve some other purpose - but that's what private schools unquestionably have the freedom to do.
I actually looked at anthropology careers for my daughter not long ago because she asked what they do. It turns out almost all of them work for the government or a university. Private demand for anthropologists is near zero.
If Florida wants to de-emphasize or eliminate certain degree programs, so be it.
"Basic research" scientists in general tend to work for governments and universities... private demand for research without immediate short-term benefits is pretty low.
I think it is a great idea. I wish Gov. Daniels would do this in Indiana. I wish education programs would lose funding because there are WAY TOO MANY TEACHERS HERE. Newsflash: you are better off taking a job at Starbucks than getting a degree in anthropology. You can actually go to the library and teach yourself anthropology for $0.
I think it is a great idea. I wish Gov. Daniels would do this in Indiana. I wish education programs would lose funding because there are WAY TOO MANY TEACHERS HERE. Newsflash: you are better off taking a job at Starbucks than getting a degree in anthropology. You can actually go to the library and teach yourself anthropology for $0.
But to make those anthropology books in the library, on the other hand... well... you know.
[color=black][font=Verdana]Guys like JR got theirs and now don't want to pay for the next generation. That is just another selfish ingrate speaking.
Before I blow your theory out of the water with a brief personal history lesson not terribly different from your own, I have to ask, who are you referring to when you say "JR"?
Funny that a conservative such as yourself suddenly believes that the government is capable of seeing into the future and picking what skills are economically more viable than others. Call it educational central planning if you like, but it certainly has nothing to do with the free market principles that you espouse when it is intellectually convenient.
Huh? What are you talking about? No one is saying these majors can't be offered they just won't be funded by the state. If there is a demand for these subjects as you suggest than the the schools will have to find alternative sources of funding through tuition increases for those who want to take those classes. It's really simple.
But to make those anthropology books in the library, on the other hand... well... you know.
I've read enough post of self-taught anthropologist, economist, constitutionalist, and political theorist to know what a load of crap that statement is.
Perhaps Rick Scott and people like yourself should actually go to a library, or better yet, a where you might learn that corporate America is spending a lot of money on their anthropology departments.
Fortunately, private-sector jobs are more than picking up the slack. Sapient, a company that develops software and electronics, has more than two dozen anthropologists on staff. House anthropologists can also be found at such companies as Intel, Kodak, Whirlpool, AT&T, and General Motors. Hallmark, for instance, hired an anthropologist to go into people's homes and study family relationships.
Detroit's Wayne State University reorganized its anthropology department for survival during a 1980s recession. Now, doctoral students in its Business and Industrial Anthropology program are often lured away by high-paying jobs.
"A new PhD just got a job paying $76,000, working for a big tech firm," says Marietta Baba, chair of the department. "That entry-level salary used to be unheard of for an anthropologist."
After conducting an ethnographic study on two-way pagers in rural China (where there is a shortage of telephones), Motorola decided to start marketing its pagers for vigorously for the rural China market. According to Jean Canavan, an anthropologist for Motorola, "If we want to develop technologies that really fit into the way people live their day-to-day lives, then we have to understand how people really live." (Hafner, 1999.)
Lucy Suchman, working as a researcher for Xerox, makes anthropological observations of airport workers to learn how they keep track of people, airplanes, luggage, and air freight. Xerox hopes to use these findings to help improve its handling of documents, design more user-friendly equipment, and improve its instruction manuals. (Deutsch 1991:C- 11)
Allison Cohen, described as a marketing ethnographer, conducts firsthand research into people's kitchen cabinets, refrigerators, and medicine cabinets to determine their buying patterns. Rather than using mailed questionnaires, as has been the case in more traditional marketing research, people like Cohen are hired by marketing firms to observe U.S. consumer behavior in its natural context. Advertising agencies are willing to hire these "Margaret Meads of marketing~'because they feel they will be able to develop more effective ad campaigns if they first know something about what is being bought and why. (Miller, Shenitz, and Rosado 1990:59-60)
Lorna McDougall, an employee at Arthur Andersees Center for Professional Education, uses anthropological data-gathering techniques to study why some people learn more effectively through the lecture method and others learn better through more interactive methods. The findings from this research will enable the instructors at the center to use the most effective teaching techniques in their corporate training. (Deutsch 1991:C- 11)
If there is a god, PLEASE SPARE US FROM IGNORANCE i.e., the Republican Party.
"Basic research" scientists in general tend to work for governments and universities... private demand for research without immediate short-term benefits is pretty low.
Yes - I know.
And if Florida wants to contribute less of the taxpayer's money to some of these fields, good for them.
And if Florida wants to contribute less of the taxpayer's money to some of these fields, good for them.
Maybe you are right, perhaps colleges and universities should spend all their money on reading for comprehension, as in, did you miss the what I posted just before yours?
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