Asking the wrong question
You are asking why the degree should be needed. That is orthogonal to what I was talking about.
A degree is an item which takes several years time, large sums of money, considerable effort, and when you get done, you aren't even guaranteed of getting it! Whether or not you think it should be worth that, that is what it takes to get one.
My experience is that people who are willing to try to claim the same benefits that said degree confers by lying are unlikely to have just gotten ahead by lying once. That means that even if external auditors (who frankly often aren't that external and often don't do a very good job - see Arthur Anderson for example) have not yet found something wrong, I won't be happy until a rather complete search is done. And it will take a long time before I would believe anything that that person says. The effort that this takes is damage done (even more damage if something is, as I would expect, turned up).
Furthermore when people become aware that liars are getting away with lying, the result is damage to our already tattered social fabric. This again is damage that I don't like.
As for whether it is OK for someone without the degree to hold the job? Well I have no problem with it. If they can get there and do the job honestly, the more power to them. I will not argue that there are a lot of stupid degree requirements that we would be better off without.
That still does not leave me inclined to leave known liars in a position of trust.
Regards,
Ben
"good ideas and bad code build communities, the other three combinations do not"
- [link|http://archives.real-time.com/pipermail/cocoon-devel/2000-October/003023.html|Stefano Mazzocchi]
