As my dear old friend April Swain used to say, "I have a question…"

In business, they say "it’s not what you know, it’s who you know," the cliche of cliches.

Now what is the difference between:

The Old Boys’ Club

and

Social Networking?

Here’s why I ask:  I don’t think the  cultural patriarchy that created the Old Boys Club, the stereotypical elite white male club of influence, really exists anymore. There’s this other Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn driven thing, and it doesn’t have the same values — it’s content, not context. And it’ll take a few years to see how this really affects the networks of power in society.

As Liam Fahey says, if I knew what this meant, I would write a book. For the moment, I’m merely asking.

-Garland

Cuba and Venezuela, the Bad Boys of the Caribbean Basin, have taken an unusual step in fighting so-called American Imperialism — they are dumping Windows is favor of open source Linux.

You see, not only is dropping $250 on a new copy of Windows Vista a bad deal, it’s feeding the imperialist tyranny! Viva Open Source! Viva Linus Torvalds!

The world is not just collective, it’s collaborative too. I don’t know how this fits into the 20th century paradigm of Communism versus Western Capitalism, but it sure is interesting.

For those of you who get a laugh out of the Red Hat + Che Guevara image — you are as big a geek as I am. Stand up and be proud.

-Garland

Some of you may know that I regularly sound off on the fact that the cost of basics in American society is skyrocketing ahead of wage increases. Real estate, healthcare, education, etc.

Well, that’s not dissuading some universities from making headlines! George Washington University will now be charging $50,000 per year for their world-famous Bachelor’s degrees!

My wife– who is an employee of George Washington University hospital — choked upon hearing the news, especially since she went to medical school for only $35,000 a year.

I am doing more and more talks at colleges, and when I talk about "graduate degree inflation" people often ask me what I mean. Well, with the increasingly competitive marketplace for work, people have been forced to seek higher credentials regardless of their saleability in the workplace.

These kids ask me if they really are consigned to grad school – is it a sound investment? What are they buying for all this money? I turned to a recent report on higher education, and found a financial analysis of the cost of education — what you could expect given the amount you pay and the amount you would ultimately earn. To elucidate the matter, I made a handy graphic:

Hey, college is still a good deal, in general. Unless you are so smart you’re going to knock ‘em dead at Yale and Princeton, your best money is spent at a state school for bachelor’s degree, followed by a professional degree — the Net Present Value of that combination was around $700,000.

But planning on getting a $200,000 bachelor’s degree in the gender studies of basketweaving, followed by a Master’s in comparative French literature? Its NPV is negative, meaning that you’ll never get your money back. ESPECIALLY when they ratchet up the cost of bachelor’s degrees.

Regardless, this is a message to the Baby Boomers running America’s universities — these tuition hikes are not just a burden to deep-pocketed parents who don’t care either way. You are reducing the future ability of Gen X and Y to keep the healthcare and social security schemes running.

Think about it. This may come back to haunt you yet.

-Garland