[JoeSmithson]

Harvard is not the most powerful institution on earth, nor do people from Harvard run all the more powerful institutions, nor, even if that were true would it mean Harvard itself is necessarily powerful.

To pick a random and specific example of an institution I consider more powerful than Harvard, how about... the Spanish Army?

[panzagl]

Really, the Spanish Army? Harvard's endowment is like 3 times it's budget. The Spanish Army is ~120,000 people, There are 2-3 times as many Harvard alumni. After Harvard those alumni have become presidents, founders, etc. Soldiers who leave the Spanish Army get... a pension, I guess?

[throwawaygh]

> Harvard's endowment is like 3 times it's budget.

That's like comparing GDP to net worth. It's not completely useless, but caveat emptor when comparing a first derivative to a zeroth derivative.

But yeah. The Spanish Military a strange example because a) it really depends on the community and b) we're talking about different types of power.

In terms of soft/cultural power, the Spanish Army might well be more influential than Harvard in Spain. But, again, only in a weird apples-and-oranges way.

I think maybe parent might have meant in terms of hard power. In a complete vacuum, the Spanish Army could probably topple the statue of John Harvard. But, again, it's completely unclear to me why that would be a useful/interesting/anything-other-than-amusing comparison.

The example I used in another thread, which I think actually works: In Utah, BYU is almost certainly more prestigious and powerful than Harvard.