Two of the sharpest commentators on just about anything are University of Chicago professor Gary Becker, a Nobel Prize winner, and Judge Richard Posner, who also teaches at U of C’s law school and has written more books than most people own. They have a blog and the most recent posting concerns the benefits of higher education.

Becker, surprisingly, pretty much buys the standard line about how higher education must be a good investment because the average earnings of people with degrees is quite a bit higher than that of people without degrees, a differential that has been growing. What he fails to consider, though, is the possibility that the rise of credential inflation has been closing off more and more opportunities for good employment to people who haven’t gotten a degree and thereby signaled their employability.

Posner, in my view, has the better of the argument. He notes that correlation isn’t causality so we shouldn’t assume that the superior earnings (and other aspects of life) enjoyed by people who have earned college degrees is due to their additional formal education. He’s also very skeptical about the supposed need to increase the percentage of Americans who go to college, a point I have often made. I’m glad to say that Professor Posner is in the camp of those who don’t want to “invest” more in higher education just so that we can believe we have the world’s most highly educated populace.