Great essay by George Will that captures the essence of the Baby Boomers for me–self love through the abuse of their kids in the name of getting into college. At Duke, about once a semester, I meet a kid who is just completely finished because of how much they were driven in high school by their parents. Stop.
Masthead
Editors in Chief
Austin Frakt
Aaron Carroll
Managing Editor
Adrianna McIntyre
Contributors
Kevin Outterson
Bill Gardner
Nicholas Bagley
Other ContributorsRecent posts
- How Useful Are Temperature Screenings for Covid?
- Veterans Experience Differences Between VHA and Community Providers
- The Health Of The People Should Be The Supreme Law
- What Can Be Learned From Differing Rates of Suicide Among Groups
- At-Home Testing for Covid
- Bias In, Bias Out
- Come work with me (and colleagues you’ve read here)
- Covid Vaccine Facts with the WHO’s Dr. Kate O’Brien
- Nest Protect and the nuclear option
- Religion and COVID: at odds?
Archives
For speaking inquiries
Interested in having Aaron or Austin speak to your group?
For information on Aaron speaking, click here.
For information on Austin speaking, contact the Leigh Bureau.
Aaron’s stuff
Selected appearances:
The Colbert Report
Good Morning America
Sound Medicine (most recent)
The Ed ShowAustin’s stuff
Click here for links to Austin’s peer-reviewed publications and/or related posts.
College Daze
03/27/2011
Don Taylor
item.php
Follow the blog
TIE Books
Amazon.com
Barnes & Noble
Indiebound
iBooks
Google
Kobo
Amazon.com
Barnes & Noble
Books-A-Million
iBooks
IndieBound
Powells
Buy at Amazon.com
Summary
Excerpt: Economic profit
Excerpt: Diminishing marginal utility
Excerpt: Four factors of production
Excerpt: Monopoly marginal revenue
Excerpt: Consumer/producer surplus
Amazon.com
Barnes & Noble
Books-A-Million
Borders
IndieBound
Powells
Borders
Barnes & Noble
IndieBound
Amazon.com
Books-A-Million
Powells
Austin and Aaron are participants in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.Tag cloud
ACA AcademyHealth access accountable care organizations Affordable Care Act announcement blogging cancer comic competitive bidding costs cost shifting COVID-19 employer-sponsored health insurance health care costs Healthcare Triage health insurance health insurance mandates health reform hospital readmissions hospitals individual mandate insurance exchange market power Massachusetts Medicaid Medicare Medicare Advantage mortality nutrition obesity On The Record physicians politics PPACA premiums prescription drugs quality reading list reflex RWJF spending uninsured Upshot vaccines
by Bill Michtom on March 28th, 2011 at 00:37
I’m surprised that a man who wrote about cancer survival vs mortality would recommend this shallow column while damning an entire generation for the behavior of its richest few percent.
by Bill Michtom on March 28th, 2011 at 00:42
Meanwhile, I’m criticizing your inconsistency when I’m comparing you with another person.
However, the criticism of your observation & Will’s column hold.
by SidewaysShrink on March 28th, 2011 at 07:53
Conversely, I have to say that I have never seen a generation (Boomers) so many of whom paid so little for their own educations (no student loans!) and who have not wanted to pay much, if anything, for their own children’s education. This was before the stock market crash in 2008. Having had every educational, career advantage and real estate equity advantage, they either refuse to acknowledge that you can’t “work your way through college” anymore or know and are caught up with their 2nd, 3rd spouse and set of children or are just plain self centered. I’ve never seen a more selfish generation. My parents aren’t Boomers so I’m not grinding a personal ax. This is the generation who didn’t fix Medicare 15 years ago because the ones in the middle to upper eschaelons don’t care how many generations it takes to pay off what they are entitled to.
It is hard to laugh at when I have seen the bright young people trapped without financial aid until they are 26 in the most competitive college admissions process ever. According to demographics, this fall top of the demographic bell will be reached and begin to fall off.
by Don Taylor on March 28th, 2011 at 08:53
@ Bill M
was a bit of a flip indictment of millions of people. I will say that the undergrads at Duke are either (1) more messed up than when I started in 1998; or (2) I pay attention more, maybe because my kids are older (oldest is 10th grader). The degree to which parents at the parties I attend compete with one another about academics and sports is completely exhausting. It is always about the parents, not the kids. It is also possible it is a small proportion of folks as Duke undergrads are not exactly a random sample of 18-21 olds, and maybe profs and over-educated types around the Research Triangle area are much worse about this. Not sure. Maybe should hold my criticism for my little bit of the pond. I will say that a big step for me as a dad has been to learn to pray that God would make me the dad my kids need and not to pray that they would be the kids I want. I mean this very sincerely.
Don