General Discussion

Costs of higher education are skyrocketing at the same pace of health care. We have no choice but to pay for health care because the alternative is death. We do have a choice about higher education.

To my knowledge, the US is the only place in the world where "higher education" actually means paying coaches and athletes many millions of dollars to play in facilities paid for by the taxpayers at institutions that have fewer full professors mostly working on corporate projects while students pay upwards of $40,000 a year to sit in a huge lecture call and hear from assistant professors just barely past a bachelor's themselves. I'd like to see some real investigation into how much "education money" is actually siphoned off for the sports programs.

There is that -- out of control costs. But there is also the lifetime value of the education. If you become a successful lawyer (most aren't spectacularly successful) or medical doctor, the degree should easily pay for itself, as there is no path into those fields without the degree. But many other degrees might have allowed graduates to get into decent occupations in the past, but we may see these occupations undermined by AI in the next decade or two.

As of now, there is no AI that will replace a plumber, electrician, or car mechanic.

A third factor is that in Trump's America, we are not happy just to have China take all the manufacturing. We now are thrilled to see China and other countries lead the world in basic research. That is a big part of what made the US educational system the envy of the world. Now, not only are research budgets slashed, an aspiring research scientist has to factor in the risk of ICE busting into the lab and disappearing you forever.