Universities in the US are on a one way treadmill to hell. They are dependent on a youth bulge, international students, and a good economy that is now passing due to a) aging population b) Cold War 2.0 with China c) funding issues after the GFC in '07-08.
Moreover, the exponential increase in facilities quality (keeping w/ the Joneses), which demands constant investment in ever more lavish buildings + admin staff has further assisted in the destruction of affordability.
A lot of Uni's w/ big endowments are now just hedge funds who happen to teach classes. They exist based on taxpayer subsidies in the form of student loans/VA GI Bill loans/etc.
Higher ed is now acquiring the dirty characteristics more associated with the payday loans industry and auto lending. Lots of money sloshing around, with little to show other than some crappy piece of paper, which hardly makes you employable.
State U's will probably be the last to suffer because of their role as flagships. But even there, suffering is still guaranteed as states have dramatically cut back on financial grants to State U's after the GFC in '07-08.
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Although of course USC is a private school, and notorious for being a rich kid's school. So there's that.
In general, most master's degrees are not worth it, unless your employer pays for it. And even then, they're probably not worth it in the personal free time sense. Being in school sucks.
The older I get, the more I learn that everything in this country is contingent; never permanent, and heavily dependent on how much money you have, and how many lawyers your have. Even enforcement of basic common rights requires lawyers. “Rule of law” is a fake grift for midwits.
“[VA Governor Elect] Youngkin was co-CEO of The Carlyle Group, the major sponsor in Braun's acquisition of Big Machine and Swift's masters.”
Just…lol.
American life is just one person backstabbing another.
One of the larger and most important macro stories of recent economic history, is how the big three Anglo manufacturing powers, the UK, Canada, and now the US, have experienced declines in their manufacturing sector since the end of WWII.
The UK's world leadership in manufacturing and subsequent 20thC decline, sometimes being intentionally accelerated as a result of policy, is well known.
CAN has also experienced a decline since peak WWII days.
This quick and dirty Wiki summary of CAN is remarkable.
Finally, you have the most complex case, the US.
The US surpassed the UK in the late 19thC as the world's premier manufacturer, and even today still dominates ultra high value added goods. But that advantage is slipping away largely due to one factor: Chinese competitiveness.
I used to think China's "internal" societal contradictions were far greater than those of the US, even as recently as early 2020.
Now? I see Chinese society as basically functioning, though of course factitious as any large, diverse society is.
The US on the other hand...
The US is undergoing societal Brazilification, with the correspondingly horrible econ and pol effects to follow.
1) Highly stratified and elaborate racial caste system 2) Favela-ization of the US housing and residential RE market 3) Totally polarized Left/Right pol parties
The US is becoming less "Western" and more "American", IMO.
She’s replying to a news story about China, but honestly, I hope you can see why the US spent so much time promoting women’s rights and new gender identities to Afghans: there is a huge Western elite constituency that demands the normalization of these New Age type ideologies.
She seems to be saying that Xi Jinping should be a Western liberal and encourage the boy to instead wear dresses and be a girl. And the girl should be lesbian.
I was a strong supporter of gay rights and marriage beginning all the way back in the early/mid 2000’s when it was somewhat unpopular to do so, but honestly, the sanctification of non-trad life by the New Age Western world is so cringe.