The Education of a Libertarian (cato-unbound.org)
Read the archive article - 2013
Read the archive article - 2025
Overview & Context
đź“ť Peter Thiel, in this 2009 essay for Cato Unbound, critiques the American education system through a libertarian lens, arguing it is both overvalued and structurally akin to a government-supported bubble.
🎓 Key Arguments
- Education as Religion: Thiel likens belief in education to a secular religion—dogmatic and unexamined.
- College as a Bubble: He draws parallels between the higher ed system and a financial bubble, driven by escalating costs and exaggerated promises of returns.
- Skepticism of Credentials: Argues that credentialism and conformity stifle entrepreneurship and creative risk-taking.
- Subsidy Distortion: Government subsidies distort market forces, propping up ineffective institutions and delaying real-world productivity.
đź’ˇ Ideological Context
- Reflects Thiel’s broader anti-democratic, pro-elite worldview—later influential in neoreactionary (NRx) and techno-libertarian circles.
- Helped lay groundwork for ventures like the Thiel Fellowship, which pays young people to skip college and build startups.
- Prefigures critiques of technocratic credentialism and institutional inertia prevalent in Silicon Valley’s ideological movements.
“Like the housing bubble, the education bubble is about credit.” — Peter Thiel
Citation
Thiel, P. (2009, April 13). Education and the Libertarian. Cato Unbound. Retrieved from https://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/13/peter-thiel/education-libertarian/
OpenAI. (2025). Summary generated by ChatGPT (GPT‑4). Retrieved from chat.openai.com