garrus74: 2) Chicago, IL: during the American Economic Association conference (basically a job market fair for young economics professors + a conference), the Occupy movement held a protest near the headquarters, holding up the banners "Stop teaching the rich how to get richer!". While what econ subjects do in high school and college (hopefully) is to teach an average joe about not making stupid financial decisions in their life (like taking out a half-a-mil mortgage with the salary of less than $100K a year)

HereForTheBeer: As an aside, up here in Wisconsin there was a story a few weeks back about how statewide there are something like 20,000 unfilled technical jobs in manufacturing - things like CNC operators, welders, and machinists, and many of them were starting at $40k or so.

The problem, the story went on to say, was that college has been sold as the best, sometimes even the only, way to reach that middle class dream. The emphasis, then, in primary education has been college prep while all-but-ignoring the technical fields that also pay quite well but don't have that college cachet. The funny thing is that these technical degrees are usually much cheaper, take a lot less time, prepare the students for actual work right away, and put them in fields where they're able to pay off whatever student loan debt might have accrued and be well on their way to making a solid life for themselves.

Meanwhile, in my segment of manufacturing, quite a number of the shop owners are those without a "normal" college degree but with manufacturing skills earned through OJT, hard work, and maybe some formal technical education.

spindown: I would assume that the location of the conference had something to do with that particular protest. The economics department at the University of Chicago is not a school for the average Joe, it's one of the most influential centers of economic thought in the world. The Chicago school of economics with its advocacy of unfettered free markets and economic liberalism has contributed significantly to the recent financial crisis and the increasing income inequality. It's hardly surprising that the Occupy movement would take their protests there.

garrus74: 2) Chicago, IL: during the American Economic Association conference (basically a job market fair for young economics professors + a conference), the Occupy movement held a protest near the headquarters, holding up the banners "Stop teaching the rich how to get richer!". While what econ subjects do in high school and college (hopefully) is to teach an average joe about not making stupid financial decisions in their life (like taking out a half-a-mil mortgage with the salary of less than $100K a year)