Grade inflation has the nasty side effect of making
your degree worthless. For every bozo that makes it through your
degree program because of grade inflation, or the related fact that
the profs. are scared of failing some one, the value of your diploma
plummets.
Taking the Harvard example above, if Harvard churns out too many
dopey people with good grades, people are going to start realizing
that a degree from Harvard does not mean that this person actually
knows what they are talking about. Carried to an extreme, grade
inflation may create a situation where graduates are barely
functional in their area of study.
Basically, we, as teachers, have got to start failing people who
don't know their stuff. Not because we are mean, or because they are
dumb, but because that is the truth. When we honestly evaluate our
students and are honestly evaluated by our teachers, then everyone
knows what is what. The teacher can try to improve their teaching and
the student can try to improve their study habits or change majors.
Grade inflation is just some kind of strange
group delusion that must be stopped.