Since the 1970s, many colleges and universities have become predatory financial giants, while mountains of student debt pile up and academic work becomes ever more precarious. An ascendant academic labor movement may be key to reversing these trends.
“Neoliberal public universities” is such a Jacobin thing to say lol
This article is a mess, and the overarching point will remain stupid as long as college graduates continue to make vastly more money than non-grads.
They could’ve approached this from any sort of reasonable position, aimed at higher ed reform, loan reform, expansion of digital university access, etc and the direction they went was “neoliberal publicly-supported education” lol
Do they make vastly more? It’s not a guarantee. Plenty of folks out there with a degree in something they can’t service $120,000 in debt on with the salary it offers. These people would’ve been better off with a trade skill, or anything that pays minimum wage without the gargantuan debt.
I do generally agree with the point of the article. University’s have become exploitative. Not just to students, but also the army of underpaid adjuncts and grad students that keep things running while the schools spend on lavish buildings and admin salaries and grow their endowments.
I think you just have an ideological ax to grind with jacobin and maybe no real experience with student loan debt or the academic job market, which is blinding you to the truths it is highlighting.
If you get a college degree and don’t make above median income it is 100% due to your own choices. I don’t believe that many of those jobs should pay so little, especially with regard to shit like social work, teaching, and other publicly funded institutions, but a college degree is a gateway to wealth full stop.
I am pro-loan-forgiveness and believe public university attendance should be free, but it’s undeniable that a college degree is currently worth the investment the vast majority of the time.
FWIW I have a degree in English/secondary education and was a teacher before I quit to make more money, which I will be forever angry about.
The system needing to change does not change reality.
I agree, too broad. Good insight. Most people can’t even conceptualize neoliberal capitalism. Change the language, make it about personal issues. Talking dialectical materialism just glazes people’s eyes.
Well also you immediately lose anyone who isnt an already-Jacobin-reading “socialist” so that’s kind of not ideal.
As an actual neoliberal capitalist, I stop taking anyone seriously the moment they force “neoliberal” into shit that isn’t remotely in an actual neoliberal’s lexicon.
Like, even the most shitty, caricature-style neoliberals are into places like the Ivy League existing. They are all famously nonprofit. Normal people who align with neoliberalism, like me, are in fucking teachers unions and shit. We’re the mainstream Democrat party, as Jacobin so often likes to remind everyone.
It’s just such a lazy, irresponsible thing for an editor to allow through and an interviewer to not challenge. Fight against real shit.
I see myself as aligned with the general direction of the Jacobin on a lot of things - that’s why I read the articles every time even if I’m constantly calling it a rag. It’s a storied name and should produce better content.
I know being edgy is their whole thing but it’s just so goddamn annoying.