25% of Alaskans have at least a Bachelor’s degree

I just checked the 2000 U.S. Census, and discovered that 24.6% of Alaskans 25 or older have at least a Bachelor’s degree. This is in comparison to 24.4% for the country as a whole.

This contradicts a group of comments left here telling me that in Alaska people don’t go to college because of all the high paying blue collar work, and that I can’t judge Alaska by mainland U.S. standards. These comments turned out to be wrong. Educational attainment in Alaska is nearly identical to the rest of the United States.

Thus, my judgments about the prole nature of the Palin family remain the same. Todd’s lack of a college degree, and the lack of any interest in college on the part of Track or Bristol, clearly mark the family as prole, both by U.S. standards and Alaska standards. And this also reaffirms my low estimate of Sarah’s IQ, because people with IQs higher than 110 generally understand the importance of college education and make sure that their kids are college-bound.

* * *

For the curious, West Virginia is the least educated state with only 14.8% of the 25+ population having at least a Bachelor’s degree. Other uneducated states include Arkansas, 16.8%, and Mississippi 16.9%.

Massachusetts, not surprisingly, is the most educated state with 33.1% of the 25+ population having at least a Bachelor’s degree. Other educated states are Colorado, 32.5% (surprising) and Connecticut, 31.2% (not surprising).

Virginia, 29.5%, is the most highly educated red state (voted Republican in last four presidential elections). For this reason, it’s the red state most likely to flip to a blue state.

This red state blue state map at Wikipedia is a great visual example of the existence of a Bible Belt. Notice that solid red belt of states going up through the middle of the country.

Comments

[superdestroyer]

College education is a proxy for whites. Any states where the interact between whites and blacks is limited is more likely to be blue. thus, states with large numbers of college graduates has a lower number of blacks and thus will be less Republican.

[Scott]

What's Karl Rove's IQ? He sounds pretty bright on Fox News. He has no degree; but just attended the University of Utah, almost finishing.

[Half Sigma]

Karl Rove definitely has a high IQ. He's one of those weird freaky people who are smart and successful but who dropped out of college.

[Peter]

"College education is a proxy for whites. Any states where the interact between whites and blacks is limited is more likely to be blue. thus, states with large numbers of college graduates has a lower number of blacks and thus will be less Republican."

Massachusetts (the state with the highest percentage of college graduates) also has a substantially higher percentage of blacks (and Hispanics) than poorly educated West Virginia. Third highest-educated Connecticut also is full of blacks and Hispanics.

[razib]

"Other educated states are Colorado, 32.5% (surprising)"

sigma, you need to get out west. this shouldn't surprise you, colorado is generally the skinniest state too. sure, there's colorado springs, but the state as a whole has an enormous number of Whiter People.

"College education is a proxy for whites."

did someone look into this? (here or inductivist?) or are you just talking out of your ass?

[randite]

Perhaps a review of the importance of a college education is in order. Most of the financially successful people that I know (including myself) gained that success not as a result of higher education but through personal work ethic and being in business. In addition, small business people seem to have more free time to pursue outside interests as well as spend time growing and nurturing their businesses. It seems to me that the average college graduate finds themselves in jobs such as teaching, law enforcement, as well as other government and assorted dead-end jobs. A recent article I read (I believe in the NY Times) pointed out the uselessness of degrees in the humanities and other soft studies. The article went on to point out that for most occupations simple internships and tech training schools would be a better alternative. Although I have a BS, I feel that it was a huge waste of time. By the way, schools like Yale still award theology degrees which are included in the totals for those with other college degrees. Why not have degrees awarded in astrology, devil worship, panhandling, etc, etc. Imagine studying something as silly as religion and being called Doctor.

The business of college degree mills is out of control in the US. Most of the graduates gain nothing from attendance. Parents ready to spend upwards of $200,000 for junior to go to some private school so that he can go out and get a $28,000 job teaching 3rd grade would be better off encouraging him to become a fireman which pays equally well and requires a lot less time on the job. They could then use the $200,000 to help him start a side business (which most firemen have). Even those that sell things like bond traders or other financial products (like myself) and make extraordinary incomes, do so without knowledge of anything taught in college. It seems to me that those that benefit the most from college attendance are MDs and a few lawyers.

[razib]

"Most of the financially successful people that I know (including myself) gained that success not as a result of higher education but through personal work ethic and being in business. "

the returns on higher education have been increasing since 1970. the r-squared is imperfect, and there's probably a lot of sorting in the population so that those with some college and lots of money hang with their own, and those with lots of college and no money hang with their own, etc., skewing anecdotal perceptions.

p.s. all the successful small business people i know worked like dogs for years before they could reduce their labor hours. the main argument for that sort of lifestyle was they set their own hours, even if they worked more than if they were in a corporation.

[razib]

ok, i went to statemaster, and checked the top 10 and bottom 10 in % with bachelor's degree or higher and % non-hispanic white. 2 states in the top 10 for both (lots of whites, lots of bachelor's degrees) overlapped. only 1 state with the least whites and least bachelor's degrees overlapped. i dropped D.C. from the list since it isn't a state (it has the highest percentage of bachelor's degrees for obvious reasons).

so i guess i can modulate my priors in terms of the likelihood that particular commenters are talking out their ass.

[DiverCity]

Good grief, HS, some of us prefer the company of high proles. I have that blessed JD degree just like you, but mine has enabled me to attain a pretty high degree of success. I'm also a southerner of Scots-Irish heritage. I would rather interact with high proles because I find them more down to earth, real, fun-loving, brave, and honest, and a whole lot less pretentious. I live amongst them and ensure that my children go to school with them (in a basically all white area of course). What does that make me? If prole, then I'm cool with that.

[Bill Nelson]

I don't get it; why does her IQ matter?

Yes, IQs can be used as predictors across population -- but the predictions are based on averages. That is, a 110 IQ will tell us a lot about a population with such an IQ, but its predictive value is pretty meaningless for an individual with that IQ.

At a minimum, you might want to consider other factors with IQ. Social class is a good start, but there are others too; e.g., temperment, ambition, curiosity, persuasiveness, ability to not gratuitously anger other people, etc.

All that said, I have a bad feeling about her, but an even worse feeling about an electorate who base their decisions on People Magazine.

Idiocracy is already here.

[Zylo]

"This contradicts a group of comments left here telling me that in Alaska people don’t go to college because of all the high paying blue collar work, and that I can’t judge Alaska by mainland U.S. standards. These comments turned out to be wrong. Educational attainment in Alaska is nearly identical to the rest of the United States.

Thus, my judgments about the prole nature of the Palin family remain the same. Todd’s lack of a college degree, and the lack of any interest in college on the part of Track or Bristol, clearly mark the family as prole, both by U.S. standards and Alaska standards. And this also reaffirms my low estimate of Sarah’s IQ, because people with IQs higher than 110 generally understand the importance of college education and make sure that their kids are college-bound."

Your analysis makes assumptions that you have yet to disprove. Firstly, you state that because an equivalent number of Alaskan's graduate from college that you may now judge Alaskan's by mainland standards. However, you have yet to prove that an even higher percentage of Alaskan's would not graduate college if all the $90,000 blue collar jobs dried up. As it stands, it is plausible that many would-be college applicants see $90,000 blue collar jobs as desirable and forgo the waste of time that is college.

Moreover, you continue to look at college through the eyes of a city-boy instead of an Alaskan. Consider Todd Palin who does better than most college graduates. Why should the Palin family believe that college is necessary when Todd a) makes more money than college grads, b) has a better looking wife than most college grads, c) undoubtedly has a much better sex life than most college grads (I will be anything that Sarah is into other women at the behest of Alpha male Todd), d) has much more fun than most college grads and e) has a much better quality of life than most college grads.
What if Todd and Sarah know something that you don't? I.e. maybe they know that college is now the playground for homosexuals, feminists and weak men. My brother can definitely attest that law school is filled with testosterone-challenged men who have to try to be manly. The better the university, the worse the problem.

I haven't been reading you long, and don't know if you are Jewish, but you certainly remind me of the Jewish half of my family. If you are Jewish, then that is likely a powerful modifier in your outlook and general social belief system. I love my family all the same, but the Jewish half possess an insecurity (or something similar) that is not generally found among the gentile half. This is a shame because I feel they are really missing out on life. I am happy though that many of my Jewish cousins are rejecting much of the Jewish paranoia and are finding proper prole wives (nothing wrong with Jewish women BTW) and getting on with their lives instead of trying to prolong an ancient lineage just for the sake of prolonging an ancient lineage. I do not wish to make any statements of fact about you, but I suspect that a few proper Christmas' with upwardly mobile prole families would offer you insight into a way of life that sure beats the classism that seems to invigorate your thoughts.

Zylonet

[Randall Parker]

Half Sigma, We do not all share your aversion to prole whites. Some of us grew up in the sorts of working class white families and neighborhoods that you look down on and we do not see these people as backward as provincial New Yorkers find them to be.

[Bourgeois Surrender]

I got a story Half Sigma will like.

A few years ago my mother-in-law got invited to a wedding (the bride was the daughter of her first cousin). The groom had gone to Harvard, and the bride to Princeton. At the reception, when the photographer was taking pictures, somebody decided that all the Harvard graduates at the wedding should be gathered for one group photo, and then all the Princeton graduates for another. Now my mother-in-law happens to have obtained an M.Ed from Harvard herself, but she understands that while this degree might impress the small town insurance brokers and even the third and fourth tier law school graduates on the schoolboard, it does not give one the privilege to associate on intimate terms with real Harvard people. However there was another lady sitting at her table, who had probably gone to Plymouth State Teachers College (now Plymouth State University) or someplace like that, and was not conscious of these generally unsubtle distinctions between Harvard degrees. This lady kept exhorting my mother-in-law to go jump into the picture, which the latter refused to do. Eventually the teachers college graduate got up and ran over to one of the older Harvard guys who was enthusiastically organizing the group for the picture, and informed him that my mother-in-law had gotten her Masters from Harvard's School of Education. The older gentleman nodded slowly at the woman, his expression twisting confusedly between politeness and irritation, as if it were wondering "What the hell is wrong with this person?"

Needless to say, my mother-in-law was not asked to join the group for the picture. Now that's elites laying down the law of who is the real deal and who isn't pretty baldly, if you ask me. If only there were a way to put the wood to humanities graduates so convincingly that they never dared claim with a straight face to be as educated as people with employable skills again...

[SFG]

Believable, but I always thought the upper-class protocol would be to allow the woman to join the picture to avoid hurt feelings. Then they laugh about it next year when they look at the pictures at the country club.

[Half Sigma]

"Some of us grew up in the sorts of working class white families and neighborhoods that you look down on"

I also grew up on such a neighborhood too. I hope never to return.

[superdestroyer]

HS,

You live in Manhatten and have lived in DC. Those are two cities which are devoid of blue collar whites.

I have always suspected that much of the elite's hatred of whites is displaced racism.

If a white anywhere in the U.S. works at a job that is performed by blacks or immigrants in DC or NYC, the elites must equate those white blue collar works with being the same as ghetto blacks.

[Audacious Epigone]

Virginia, 29.5%, is the most highly educated red state (voted Republican in last four presidential elections). For this reason, it’s the red state most likely to flip to a blue state.

Virginia may become Democratic, but to presume it is vigorously tied to the bachelor+ population is tenuous at best. Utah is the second "most educated" red state, and to be the very last state to ever vote Democratic. Literally, it'd require a 50 state+DC landslide for Utah to become blue for an election cycle. Kansas, the third most educated red state, would hold out almost as long as Utah.