A few weeks ago, I took on a three-part series by conservative “scholar” and author of the infamously racist The Bell Curve, Charles Murray, who argued that most Americans are too dumb for college, and that most college educations impart no meaningful skills. Clearly following my lead (I am, of course, on the cutting edge of today’s journalism), the New York Times Sunday Magazine mentions some of the same critiques of Murray’s argument.

Citing the income gap between those with and those without higher education, the piece underscores the value of a college education, and goes beyond Murray’s simplistic conception of learning. Most importantly, the article focuses on the value of education as a general signal, pointing out how the modern economy’s greatest rewards “have gone to those whose intelligence is deployable in new directions on short notice, not to those who are locked into a single marketable skill...”

A college education isn’t the end-all, be-all of a meaningful existence. As undergraduate education becomes more accessible, perhaps some of its prestige will fade and transfer to graduate education. But, the point still stands. A college education is still a worthwhile and vital component of upward mobility and the American dream, and Charles Murray is still a moron.