This Says More About the University of Chicago Than They Would Like

I've always wondered if the University of Chicago economics department was little more than than an attempt to engage in, "One of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness," to quote John Kenneth Galbrath.

Now it appears that the whole damn school is exclusively structured for the purpose reinforcing privilege:

Back in May at the University of Chicago, this happened:

Two locksmiths with medical conditions were told to repair locks on the fourth floor of the Administration Building during the day. Stephen Clarke, the locksmith who originally responded to the emergency repair, has had two hip replacement surgeries during his 23 years as an employee of the University. According to Clarke, when he asked Kevin Ahn, his immediate supervisor, if he could use the elevator due to his medical condition, Ahn said no. Clarke was unable to perform the work, and Elliot Lounsbury, a second locksmith who has asthma, was called to perform the repairs. Lounsbury also asked Ahn if he could use the elevator to access the fourth floor, was denied, and ended up climbing the stairs to the fourth floor.

Clarke and Lounsbury were told they had to haul their asthma and hip replacements up four flights of stairs because the University of Chicago has had a policy of forbidding workers from using the elevators in this building, which houses the President’s office, during daytime hours. As the university’s director of labor relations put it: “The University has requested that maintenance and repair workers should normally use the public stairway in the Administration Building rather than the two public elevators.”

The problem is not just that the divide between rich and poor is too extreme, it is that we are going balls to the wall feudal as well.