A reader writes:
I am currently taking an Economics 101 class in college. My professor is clearly a Keynesian economist (and worked for the Fed). I have done my best to read about Austrian Economics and I know enough to realize that he has it all wrong. It makes me feel uncomfortable that the entire class is being indoctrinated, so I sometimes raise my hand and ask a subtle, provoking question. We are currently learning about the Fed and its powers, and we just got started on Open Market Operations. Forget that I’m slightly confused about the topic, do you have any ammunition for me to ask him about it during class? While you’re on that, do you have any general issues for me to raise during class?
Before I share the answer I gave him, I’ll point out that once in a while I gently corrected my professors. At Columbia, after listening to a professor recite several explanations for the Great Depression without (of course) mentioning the Austrian one, I had to raise my hand and rectify the oversight.
But here’s what I told this reader:
In general I don’t think it’s a good idea to challenge the professor, especially when you are a novice. He knows much more than you do, and your efforts to trip him up or enlighten the class could backfire in two ways: (1) he shoots some jargon back at you that he knows you won’t understand, and the students thereby think you were the loser in the exchange; and (2) virtually everyone hates a know-it-all or a regular question-asker, since virtually all students just want the professor to tell them what they need to know to get a B-minus on the test, and someone like you is interfering with that process.
Be consoled that most of these students will forget the vast bulk of what they were taught, and that once you have become knowledgeable in the field you will be in a position, thanks to the Internet, to help educate far more people around the world than are sitting in your classroom today.
Your goal should be to learn the reigning paradigm as well as you can, and then to learn Austrian economics on your own, and in tandem with the Mises Institute’s indispensable summer Mises University program, which you should apply to attend.