America's Impending Brain Drain; F. Huxtable

A Child of the '40s To help you see what has happened in this country, let me briefly recount the story of someone I have known all of my life. This goes back nearly 50 years to 1943,when this Fulton L. Huxtable is president of Huxtable Associates, Inc., in St. Charles, Missouri. person began his life. The world then was quite, quite different from the one he would grow up in if he were born today. This boy grew up in a small, rural com munity in Arkansas and in a family of modest means. He listened to Sky King and Sergeant Preston on the radio. He went to the local movie theater nearly every Satur day to see Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, and all the other heroes of the big screen. This boy idolized these people. When he grew up, he wanted to bejust like them, to be heroic and do important things in life. When television came to the household in the mid-'50s, he loved to watch Superman and the other heroes. Again, he wanted to be like them. They inspired him to try to make something out of himself.

In school, he was a good student and it was important to him to learn and do well. He had good teachers who encouraged him. Life suddenly changed for this kid, at the age of 14, when his father went broke, losing virtually everything. His father lost the home he had owned, the family car was repossessed and, before it was over, the lights in their rented house were periodically turned off because the electric bill hadn't been paid. But the boy, remembering his heroes, faced the fears brought on by suddenly not having money and went to work. He did everything: he got up at 3:30 in the morning to deliver papers, he mowed yards, he ran 96 the popcorn stand at the local dime store, he drove a tractor for one of his Dad's friends, and had more jobs in high school than there is room to write about. He excelled in high school, despite the hardships and the fact that he was the oldest of seven kids, growing up in a small, three bedroom home. He was absolutely deter mined to get an education, because he saw education as the key to his future, as the way to get out of the grinding poverty. He worked his way through both undergraduate and graduate school and eventually went on to establish his own business and achieve a fair degree of success.

A Child of the '70s Now, consider how this same person might have turned out, today, if he were born in, say, 1970. What might make things turn out differently? Well, let's try to recall the kinds of movies and television programs during the early '70s. By that time, the heroes of the late' 40s and '50s had disappeared, replaced by what were openly called anti-heroes who pos sessed none of the admirable qualities pro jected by heroes. Heroes were made laugh able, silly, and the objects of ridicule in both television and in the movies. Broadly speaking, a hero is someone who is committed to doing what is right and has the courage to act according to his convic tions. Such an image is important to children (and to adults), because it provides us with a vision of what one should be as a person. Some specific heroic qualities, such as cour age, honesty, and integrity, are essential for a young person to learn. And, as one grows up, one learns that it isn't necessary to chase criminals to be a hero. It is the principle which is important to learn: do what you think is right, struggle to achieve something important.

Now, would that young man, born in 1970, rather than in 1943, develop an heroic vision of what his future life should be? It isn't likely and, if he did, he certainly couldn't have gotten it from the movies and television programs of the '70s and '80s. 97 And what might he have done if, say, in 1984, his father had gone broke? Would he, a 14-year-old, have struggled and endured unspeakable hardships to work at every job he could get in order to make it? Maybe, but again, it isn't likely. In 1984,the government offered food stamps, housing assistance, and all sorts of other things to supposedly take the sting out of poverty. Never mind that such programs create a class of people who become dependent on the government, that they destroy self-reliance as a virtue in our young people and actually perpetuate poverty because people never learn how to take care of themselves. Why should that young man, born in 1970, make the excruciating struggle to get an education and rise above his poverty, if nothing is important in life, if there isn't anything worth the struggle (the lesson con veyed by the anti-heroes), and if the gov ernment will take care of his needs anyway?

Increasing numbers of our young people are deciding there isn't any point to making the struggle. And lest anyone think I am hardhearted and "don't understand" what it's like to be poor and uneducated, let me tell you that I am the kid born back in 1943 and his story is my story. Don't misunderstand me: each person has a choice about what he or she will be. A few individuals manage, somehow, to buck the bad trends of their particular era. However, the sad fact is that most young people follow the prevalent values of their time. If the prevailing view is that being a hero is silly, old-fashioned, and out of touch with reality, believe me, most young people will not try to be heroic and will not struggle to achieve something important in their lives. The anti-heroic view so prevalent in the '70s and '80s (and which continues to this day) wasn't confined merely to television and the movies; it has permeated every cultural outlet: books, novels, plays, music (especially the kids' music) and, worst of all, our teachers.

If a young person, born in 1970, has managed to achieve and preserve any heroic sense, any belief in such things as truth, 98 THE FREEMAN • MARCH 1993 certainty, and political freedom, he or she may well encounter a brutal assault on those beliefs in college. In college, his teachers will claim that there are no absolutes (but they are certain about this being an absolute), that there is no right or wrong (but they are sure this is right), that there is no certainty in life (but they are certain of this), that lifeis a pathetic farce (on this count, they are partially right, but only as it applies to their own lives), that we are all victims of our surroundings (let them speak for themselves), and that the government is the solution to all of our problems. In case you think I am exaggerating, let me tell you that all of these things were being routinely taught by professors in the '60s. I was there and I know. And they are teaching the same things and worse, today.

I can recall, nearly 30 years ago, telling my Dad about what was being taught in college. He was skeptical, thought I was perhaps guilty of youthful exaggeration, and found it hard to believe that anyone would teach such things. In any event, he didn't think anybody would believe such things, so he thought the teachings of my professors would be of no practical consequence. This mistaken perception underscores the insid iousness of this destructive process. Scores Decline as Values Are Eroded Let's go back now to the declining test scores of our youngsters, scores which have been declining for more than two decades. Do you begin to see the connection between those scores and the anti-heroic, anti certainty, anti-right-and-wrong culture of the last 30 years? What is the point of struggling to learn to read, to master math ematics, or to write, if there are no absolute values worth preserving?

You will not see reports on the evening news about the staggering casualties at the hands of our cultural and educational insti tutions (the fact that you don't is a disgrace). The exception is an occasional story about the number of students who graduate(!) from high school but cannot read or solve simple mathematical. problems. The wide spread waste of our young minds casts a dark shadow on the future of our country. When you see destruction on such a wide scale-the declining test scores, the rising use of drugs, the decline of self-reliance and honesty as virtues-there can be only one cause: the ideas which are being spread by our cultural institutions and, most espe cially, by the teachers in our universities. America's Brain Drain One normally associates the term brain drain with the situation that has occurred in countries with centrally planned economies: the best minds flee the country. This disap pearance of engineers, doctors, scientists, and professionals of every sort devastates that country's economy.

However, America's brain drain is and will be different: the best minds will not, for the most part, leave the country, they simply will never develop. In increasing numbers, young men and women will simply give up the quest to develop their minds to the fullest. After all, they have been taught all of their lives that it is foolish to carryon the struggle of the hero, to attempt to do what's right (right?-a foolish concept of the igno rant and uneducated, according to the teach ers) and achieve great things (great? nothing is great and if it were, no one could define it). There is, however, an element of Amer ica's brain drain which will be and is now similar to what has occurred in socialist countries: professionals of every sort are retiring at an abnormally early age. This early retirement isn't the result of the well publicized downsizing of America's corpo rations. This is the result of people quitting their professions out of disgust and weari ness. Most of the evidence for this phenom enon is largely anecdotal, but it is happening at an accelerating pace.

Doctors are retiring from medicine at an early age because encroaching government policies and our runaway legal system are threatening their very existence. Small busiAMERICA'S IMPENDING BRAIN DRAIN 99 ness owners are shutting their doors be cause they are tired of the hassle of govern ment regulations, which make their businesses increasingly unprofitable, and out of fear of lawsuits. If you think long enough, you can probably think of someone you know who has quit his profession be cause of disgust with government interven tion, bad employees, or the increasingly hostile legal environment. There are countless other professionals, in all walks of life, who would retire today if they could afford to do so. Virtually everyone, including you, knows someone who falls within this category. And then there are the potential busi nesses which will never be started. To start a business requires guts, heroism, dedica tion, vision, and political freedom-the very things which our cultural institutions have sought to destroy.

The president of a company in Indiana recently told me a haunting story of a young man who was one of the brightest and most talented individuals in his industry. The young man had considered starting his own company, but finallydecided it wasn't worth it: too many problems with government regulations, lawsuits, and employees. If this young man had started out back in the '50s, he probably would today be the owner of a business employing dozens of people. But not today. Hope for the Future There is still hope for the future of this country, but only if we seize upon a dra matically new approach to education, one which will reverse the destructive trends which have been produced by an entrenched bureaucracy of educators who are depen dent upon government funds for their live lihood and who have a vested interest in promoting the government as the.solution to all of our problems. The quickest way to begin the reversal of the current brain drain is to eliminate any and all government involvement in educa tion. This is, I know, going to strike most as radical, and it is.

Consider the following. The decline in our students' test scores roughly coincides with the rise of government spending on educa tion, most especially on the federal level. The more the government spends, the worse the results. Throwing more money into this bottomless pit is futile. Apart from the fact that it is morally wrong for a government to use force to take your money to pay for education, state-run schools, with few ex ceptions, have done an atrocious job of educating our young. However, the most important issue here is one of individual rights and property rights. Remember, the government is an instrument of force. It can either be the protector of rights, property, and liberty, or it can be the greatest threat to these things. Today, the government is the greatest threat to our freedom, and our individual property rights. What does this have to do with education? More than most realize.

If your neighbor came to your front door with a gun in his hand, demanding money to pay for his kids' education, you would consider this wrong. It is nothing more than theft, notwithstanding the worthiness of his cause. However, ifthat same neighbor, rather than robbing you directly, goes to the voting booth and votes for a property tax, which will force you to give up money to fund public schools, you mightnot likeit but you probably wouldn't consider it robbery. However, the truth of the matter is that your neighbor is using the government's power to take your money, and it is as if he had robbed you at gunpoint. The only difference is that he's getting the government to do it for him. This isn't right and no one can justify the use of government force in this manner. Such ac tion is a violation of individual rights and of your property rights. In a free society, you would be free to pay for your own children's education (or some one else's, if you so desired) or contribute to the institution of your choice. Each student attending school would do so by choice and would want to be there because he wanted to learn. Today, you are forced to pay for programs, courses, and teachers imparting ideas you would not voluntarily support.

100 THE FREEMAN • MARCH 1993 Freed of the burden of paying taxes for education, you would have the funds to pay for private education. And, contrary to popular belief, private education w~uld li'e comparatively inexpensive and affordable. Competition would make education afford.. able and widely available. The quality of education, with the elimi nation of public schools, would rise dramat ically. These schools and their teachers would have to compete for your business. There would be a strong incentive for the schools to provide the very best results for your children and to teach the best ideas. The schools and teachers would be respon sive to your concerns because you would be free to go elsewhere if you were displeased. Today, few parents have that choice be cause few can afford to pay the taxes for public education and also pay to send their children to private schools. Dismantling publicly funded educational institutions will not, by itself, eliminate the forces which have created America's brain drain; but privatizing education will establish the precondition for destroying these forces.

Today, our public educational institutions are heavily dominated by teachers who are committed to a philosophy of anti-certainty, anti-right-and-wrong, and anti-freedom. In a free market system of private education, few parents (and few students) would pay for courses which teach such a philosophy if they were spending their own hard-earned money. They would seek out those teachers who have something better to offer, thereby creating an opportunity for teachers who have something better to offer. Today, those teachers who disagree with the academic establishment are virtually shut out of our educational process. A free market system of private schools will bring out the best ideas from our teach ers and bring out the best in our students, thereby creating the beginnings of the re versal of America's brain drain and opening the road for an intellectual and economic renaissance in America. That shining vision of America, the vision projected by the Founding Fathers, will, once again, have a chance to be seen by our young, and light the way to a bright future for us all. 0 THE ACTON INSTITUTE FORTHESTUDYOFREl1GIONANDLmERlY P romoting a society that c.ombines religious pluralism, civil liberties, and a free market within a tradition that places a high value on scholarship, religion, and religious institutions. To that end, the Institute seeks to familiarize the religious community, particularly students and seminarians, as well as business leaders, with the ethical basis for liberty and the free market. To receive a free sampleissueof our journal,Religion& Liberty,callorwriteto: THE ACTON INSTITUTE 161 Ottawa Ave. NW, Suite 405K Grand Rapids, MI 49503 (616) 454-3080 THEFREEMAN IDEASON L1BER1Y CLASS EXCLUSION NOTICE The Airlines Antitrust Litigation P. O. Box 275 Mt. Royal, NJ 08061-0275 Dear Sirs: My wife (Lois) and I (Virgil) recently received notices (copies attached) indicat ing that we are members of the Class.