I just started a new class today and, just like every other one, the professor was a leftist - of the Marxian variety. During his lecture when he blamed capitalism for the financial crisis, praised Mao, and pinned the problems of the world on private property; I began to wonder if I had ever had a professor who supported the free market (even if it wasn't full free market support) - I could not think of one.
Have any of you been fortunate enough to have a college/university professor that didn't blame all the problems of the world on the market?
<~~ Me. And I went to a pretty lefty college. We had pro market and anti-market supporters. Most weren't really that political when it didn't call for it tho. I spent a lot of time arguing with one professor about the differences between government and business beuaracracies.
/shrug
In States a fresh law is looked upon as a remedy for evil. Instead of themselves altering what is bad, people begin by demanding a law to alter it. ... In short, a law everywhere and for everything!
~Peter Kropotkin
In college, not yet. But in high school, one of my study teachers (who was a math teacher) was a libertarian.
My philosophy professor is a libertarian, and most of my other professors seem to 'like' the idea of private property, but they end up embracing all sorts of other absurdities, like a heavily mixed economy, and giving occassional credence to portions of Marxist dogma.
I have two conservative professors this semester. I was talking to one of them after class, we were talking about business and economics. He really seems to like me, especially after he found out I knew who Hayek was. He said I should stop by his office some time.
The other one says he's a republican, but he says he supports legalizing pot and gay marriage. Sounds pretty libertarian to me (though I challenged him about legalizing all drugs in class, and HE LOST the argument).
Freedom has always been the only route to progress.
I had a Chemistry prof a long time ago who had a picture of him and Rothbard in a picture together. Couldn't believe it.
I wish I could've met the man.
David Friedman is still alive, and it would be like meeting Rothbard to me. I wonder if there is anyway to know if he'll be any lectures or speeches around my area. Walter Block, or Jeffrey Tucker would be pretty cool to meet too.
You guys are lucky.
I suppose it also depends on what your major is. I don't think there are very many free market supporters in the social sciences. I guess it doesn't make very much sense for an anthropologist, sociologist, or historian to be a capitalist. These fields are almost exclusively dominated by Marxists, Fabians, and the Progressives.
However, in certain fields, like computer science for example, libertarianism is much more pronounced - at least to me it looks that way. I'm pretty sure that there are a couple computer science majors on these forums. Maybe they can attest to what I'm saying???
My intermediate macro prof last semester was a monetarist. Very libertarian, at least by "mainstream" standards. He supported central banking and the bailouts though. :-|
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My econometrics professor was extremely free market and, while political philosophy didn't come up much, a few of my engineering professors frequently made snide remarks about certain government regulations and standards.
I suspect the Department Chair at my University is a closest anarchist of the David Friedman variety, and in general the faculty has a good majority of libertarians.
All of my professors blame capitalism for everything. I contacted the head of one department to discuss whether he'd be interested in overseeing my senior thesis on what a stateless society would look like with a capitalistic economy, though, and he seemed really interested, so we'll see where that goes.
The wisest, most well read professor I've yet had seemed to be a chicago-ite (reaffirming was his U Chicago education) of the Posner variety. He once spoke on the Great Depression and presented all the common theories, but explicitly endorsed the standard monetarist interpretation (lack of liquidity by the Fed). While he was both skeptical and surprised when he read my paper on ABCT (it was a polysci class, but I convinced him that monetary issues were a matter of public policy :P), he seemed to appreciate me introducing him to a new idea, and he certainly seemed appealed, especially since he was already of the non-interventionist mindset.
I think if he were to have someone convincing educate him of Austrian theories, he'd warm up to the them. Just about all my other teachers were either politically apathetic or progressive. My economics teacher is barely more sane than a Zeitgeist supporter >.<
Accounting major here, so I've generally had people who at least recognize the value of profits/private property etc. But I've also dabbled in poli sci and english, and as one would expect there were nothing but leftists there. Haven't had the good fortune of learning from any actual free market supporters though (which is why this site is where most of my real education happens!)
I had a few near-right political science professors in undergrad... as well as several from the far left. My intro economics teacher was a Keynesian, but apparently there are several Austrians in the department whom I unfortunately managed to miss.
I'll be going to a HBC for law school, and I'm afraid that may mean my views will be quite unappreciated, though I hope to be pleasantly surprised. I'd just rather that we stayed on the subject of law and far from that of politics.
I had an econ class with a Friedmanite who actually studied under Friedman. He was very pro-market and pro-Fed.
To paraphrase Marc Faber: We're all doomed, but that doesn't mean that we can't make money in the process. Rabbi Lapin: "Let's make bricks!" Stephan Kinsella: "Say you and I both want to make a German chocolate cake."