There is great fascination with the recent story about celebrities paying big dollars to get their children into certain colleges/ universities.  This probably happens frequently, but in this case, the money was being paid covertly for cheating.

I find it fascinating from the human psychology aspect.  The two most well-known people in this scandal – Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman – paid big money just so that their children could get admitted to relatively top-name schools.  Now they are exposed and are in major trouble with the law.  But even if it were not against the law, is it really worth it to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars just so your kids can get into a good school?

This is a demonstration about today’s society and how much people care about appearances. These people are so concerned about what others think that they spend ridiculous amounts of money and risk major jail time just so that they can brag about where their kids are going to school.

They are facing jail time and huge legal costs, while also maybe losing their careers.  Loughlin was reportedly fired from the Hallmark Channel, and she may also be let go from the hit Netflix show, Fuller House.

Perhaps the most ironic thing is that her daughter is likely dropping out of school, and the companies Sephora and TRESemme have ended partnerships with her.  The daughter didn’t need to go to a top-name school. She already had name recognition and would have likely had a successful career without even going to college.

Loughlin and her husband reportedly spent about $500,000 in bribe money in order to get their daughter into the University of Southern California.  Actually, there was no guarantee she would get in.  The bribe money just improved her chances.

The Wrong Type of Bribe

While I think this is fraud, and it is also an absurd thing to do, I have to question whether this rises to a criminal offense.  The only real victims here are the colleges that were defrauded, and perhaps a few unknown people who might have been admitted otherwise.

What happens to someone who lies on a job application and the company finds out about it years later after hiring the person?  The most likely result is just that the person gets fired.

When you get down to it though, these people basically used a lot of money in order for their children to gain admission.  Meanwhile, let’s look at the other ways that are used to gain admission to higher education.

1. Affirmative action, where people of certain races or cultural backgrounds are given preference over others, is common everywhere.  Why are people given the option to identify their race on an application?  And if you belong to a certain minority group, you can almost be certain that this will help your chances.
2. People who make big donations to a school are far more likely to have their children admitted to that school.
3. It’s often a case of whom you know and not so much what you know.  There are many people admitted to certain schools just because they know the right people.
4. To go along with the previous two points, there is a general favoritism towards legacies. If your parents and grandparents both attended Harvard, this is probably going to increase your chances of getting into Harvard.

Yet, all of these things are legal.  They are all discriminatory, but they are seen as acceptable in terms of the law.

In this current scandal, there is an element of fraud, so I’m not saying it is the exact same thing.  But it is hard to miss the similarities.

Incidentally, Elizabeth Warren is now running for president, and she lied on her college application that she was a Native American.  Why isn’t she given the same treatment?  Is it just because of the statute of limitations?  Where is the uproar that she cheated?

With that said, maybe this whole cheating scandal will prevent Warren from winning the presidential nomination for the Democrats.  It will be hard for her to avoid the similarities.

Restitution

Lori Loughlin was released on a one million dollar bond.  You would think she was some kind of violent threat to society.

Under a more libertarian system of law (i.e., a more just system), jail time would not even be considered.  It should be a strictly civil matter.  If there is any punishment under the law, it should be restitution.  I am not even sure who the restitution money would go to, but it would be better than locking up people who are no threat to society and having the taxpayers pay for it.

These people are receiving punishment anyway outside of the law.  The rich parents are losing their jobs, as well as some of the kids involved.  This alone is devastating.

Meanwhile, anyone willing to fork over half a million dollars to improve their child’s chances of getting into a good school obviously cares about how they look in the public eye.  They care a little too much.  This whole incident is embarrassing and humiliating.  If all charges were dropped today, then these celebrities would have suffered enough with the shattered careers and the humiliation.

My last point in this whole saga is to look at the role of the FBI in this whole thing.  In the case of Felicity Huffman, FBI agents appeared at her house at 6:00 in the morning with their guns drawn in order to arrest her.

Is this really necessary?  It is like a repeat of the Roger Stone incident.  I’m sure she would have just surrendered herself at the courthouse or the police station if she had been ordered to do so.  She likely had no further evidence to hide at that point, and she was not a high flight risk.

And why is the FBI even involved in this whole thing?  Don’t they have terrorists to catch or something?  This is a total waste of resources, although I suppose it is better than the resources being expended on finding (creating) evidence that Russia hacked our elections.