Whoever educated you about France and multiculturalism did not do a very good job.

A “very” different experience and “putting it mildly” seems to suggest you weren’t too happy with the non-market-failure arguments. Economics or business higher education is probably the only field not blatantly biased against the market all the time, if only because most textbooks used are American. The professors however often still cling to their left-wing beliefs, and the focus is upon market failure.

Academia is otherwise extremely anti-market, but that’s not much different in the USA. Luckily , Americans spend less time in higher education since it isn’t “free”. Since young people enter the unencumbered job market faster they hopefully learn to forget the nonsense they learned in their liberal arts degrees.

If you pick well you can surely find pro-market education in Europe. Most people will not encounter it though, you must seek it out. These studies are so vague, because culture is vague. Are you implying that Europe is as pro-market as the USA? Surely not. Again, I think that the best way to find out what people think is to examine politics and debates of “public intellectuals”. And there it is “social democracy” either steeped in multi-culturalist rhetoric or anti-immigrant rhetoric, with a consistent anti-market attitude across the spectrum. Even the so-called pro-market parties are happy with 50+% of GDP government expenditures.

Finally, even if a “MScE in economics” (notice the English) isn’t anti-market, high-school education is surely extremely socialist, staffed by left-wing government employees who preach the anti-American anti-market pro-EU message of happy multiculturalism day in day out.

That qualifies me to comment in a limited way.

The economics course talked about supply and demand, prices, and really all the usual stuff one might expect in an economics course. So Theil’s claim that “When they graduate, they may not know much about supply and demand” seems inaccurate, for France.

He also says students will not know about “the workings of a corporation”. I would argue this is probably untrue in France, given the ubiquity of the “stage”. At one time or another most university students follow a stage in a corporation or other organisation. This doesn’t happen so much in anglo saxon countries, although many students have a gap year or go on a placement.

However, Theil’s claims shouldn’t all be dismissed. The textbooks do reflect France’s status as a “social market economy”. They do give greater emphasis to the importance of government spending than the anglo textbooks, to collective bargaining, and the importance of “le social”.

This is reinforced by a distinctive set of assumptions expressed in the media, where Theil’s accusations would probably be easier to justify using hard facts.

Henry, your claim about “bad Marxism in reverse” is problematic too. I take it we shouldn’t understand you as believing that the general tone of a country’s education has no effect on that society’s general assumptions? But what should we understand you to believe instead?

See: they’re biassed. Point proven.

Perhaps you left Europe in the 70ties, or you are seeing things through a peculiar libertarian prism, or you are trying to troll—I don’t know how otherwise to explain the gap between what you write and what I see/experience.

why isn’t this evidence that german and french employees generally have more rights and stronger unions, and are therefore treated better than their american counterparts, leading fewer to want the independence of being their own boss? i don’t see why this is a worse explanation than theil’s.

also, apparently it reflects well on economic education in america that americans are more willing to start businesses they think will fail.

Thanks for providing some actual experience with European education. Funny how it seems to conflict with some “experts” on the thread.

In America social problems are seen to be created by a benevolent and powerful state, to be solved by private greed and anti-social attitudes.

“L’approche pluridisciplinaire caractéristique de l’enseignement des sciences économiques et sociales est prise en compte de deux façons :

In other words this isn’t an economics course, it’s economics AND sociology. Sounds like a good idea!

It is hard to convey the enormity of the difference if you haven’t yourself experienced it for years and years, and generalizing about culture will always lead to some form of cherry-picking to back up your arguments. Perhaps a more helpful way to analyze anti-market sentiments is to listen what successful European politicians have to say about it, indeed the products of elite socialist schools.

Abitur-Prüfungen Volks- und Betriebswirtschaftslehre LK Berufl. Gymnasium Baden-Württemberg

http://www.stark-verlag.de/produkte/ProduktDetail.asp?ID=82585&ST=1