WSU Layoffs

[English]

Predicts? It IS one of the current big bubbles - has been for over a decade. Glad they're finally catching on, I guess :eyeroll

Well, I predict that the United States is the equivalent of the USSR in the 1980s. It's not an exact parallel, but just as late-stage communism began showing its cracks back then, late-stage capitalism is definitely showing its you-know-what.

People are pissed off by the WF subsidy [[discussed in another thread) because free market principles have been the popular economic gospel in our society for the past generation or so. We like the thought of a lone, rugged individual making it through the sheer sweat of his or her brow. Whenever someone points out ways that someone may have been helped, whenever you use facts and examples to show ways that the market has never been truly free, and no one is an island, you get called a liberal pinko commie or worse.

Higher education in the United States during the 20th century was absolutely unparalleled. However, one of the reasons why the most highly regarded university system in the world IS failing is because of its adherence to capitalist principles. Just as US "citizens" have suddenly because primarily "taxpayers," students are no longer our students. They are customers, consumers, and target audiences for our marketing. Teaching is no longer the priority because faculty are seen as revenue generators as well -- along with the pressure to publish, we have to bring in grants as well.

So it's not just that the university is the next bubble. Every single major mid-20th century institution is a bubble. Even the military.

Hold on, folks. It's gonna be a bumpy ride.