Why Give Billions to Universities?

Have COVID…….take bleach!

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Why so dramatic. Why bloodshed? The solution is easy. I described it here:

One nation. Defense, transportation, agriculture, etc. handled federally.

All social program spending, SSA, all university funding, handled at the League level. All the departments and bureaus created with eh New Deal move to the League level.

Red states would be free to cut or eliminate all social programs

Blue states could keep whatever they want.

Each state would have vetting systems preventing citizens from one league from using social programs in another league unless the original league agrees to financially compensate the league they move to. That way no instant migration of people just to get a better deal.

One nation. All the important stuff funded federally. All the nice-to-have stuff funded by the league. Some legislators for everything.

The only problem with the system is that it is sensible and completely un-outrageous.
NO NEED FOR ALL CAPITALS or blood loss. Which makes it a non-starter for the outraged addicted 25%-50% of the populace.

IT is not just Fox it is the entire algo driven internet. If you don’t have your privacy set up properly and you don’t use browsers who don’t store and share your information [as much] the algorithms start feeding you more. Especially things that might get your anger level up a notch as this generates more clicks. Clicks are what they want for the most part because clicks increase advertising rates which equals a lot more money. Next thing you know you are sent to more websites that keep you clicking and agree with how you think whether fact based or not. Soon you only see and believe one point of view unless you are intellectually curious and fact check rigorously. They even use this to influence elections because it pays well. Soon you are brainwashed. The bros in Silicon Valley who laugh all the way to hiding their billions.
Universities for the most part teach facts along with varied points of view which authoritarian governments just can’t abide so there is a constant barrage of BS about how universities are ruining the country. Keep in mind most of the people behind this are university educated.
So it’s much more than Fox and MSNBC though Fox and the ultra right did get a head start. Lee Atwater was one of the pioneers of this before the internet back in Nixon’s time with the ‘Moral Majority’ and busing. Thank God he didn’t have the internet. Gingrich and Norquist continued on after Lee died. In retrospect Nixon was the last liberal president on the current scale. He’d be labeled a communist or socialist today.

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No. You will find that the universities can have their money back if they just change their minds about a few issues. Most importantly, universities must stop their DEI practices, stop racism and antisemitism on campus, and stop being hotbeds of anti-Americanism.

They can squeal all they like but by simply changing a few minor things they can return to better funding.

Let’s not forget the $billions places like Harvard have in the bank earning tax-free income.

Trump’s just sending a message in his very direct way. No play? OK, no pay.

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How many staff in a uni are not involved in lecturing or research but woke ism?

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Fund universities and de-militarize the police. The way we are going would make Pol Pot proud.

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Pol Pot didn’t have the tech bros.Trump is using Palantir to gather information on every citizen and put in a government database. Surveillance state is being created just like China’s. Palantir was of course founded by Peter Thiel who merged with Musk to form Paypal. Thiel hired JD Vance and has groomed him since college. Thiel is a nut case alpha tech bro who now has nut case Karp running Palantir. Karp is like some villain out of a Batman movie. The unvetted DOGE bros have been and are hoovering up information on US citizens which will be included in this AI powered database. Theil already has everyones internet activity, spending patterns. vehicles and houses owned, insurance owned and much more in the database. When spoken of they claim it is to track illegal immigrants which is a joke.
Pol Pot eventually will be a minor footnote in the history of authoritarian dictatorships.

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because many govs defunded their unis so made them into a business of selling degrees to foreign students to survive.

Simple way to solve the issue: switch social program spending to the the League system, including university funding.

Harvard being in a blue state could receive grants only from the Blue League . The Red league wouldn’t have to pay any grants to it at all.

Red League students would still attend as out-of-league students, no different than out-of-state students in concept. Increased tuition, which is only fair, because they did not pay taxes to support them.

A win-win situation: Red states no longer have to fund universities which they detest, like Harvard and Stanford. Blue States would no longer have these universities interfered with .

It goes without saying that any income gained by patents granted to these universities would stay in the league coffers. Stanford makes about $60 million a year in patent income.

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Issue is a private uni or a gov uni?
In the rest of the world its 99% or 100% gov owned uni’s and hence some standard as the gov is meant to know what is happening.

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It’s interesting but a lot to consider. I would propose if the Federal government followed the tenth amendment as we grew as a nation, we wouldn’t have all these agencies that you suggest we transfer to the leagues. The outraged addicted populace like MAGA? Take a look at Tengineers rant above about Thiel. I am not sure a little blood isn’t necessary from time to time…

If we followed the Tenth Amendment, which concludes with the words “…or to the people.”, our situation would be very different. So much is lost through a representative gov’t.

And yet at least 50% of the population wants the services provided by those agencies. They are the same services which every developed, stable government in the world provides.

SSA and Medicare are not going away. It’s better that each league fund their own versions with their own rules, so there is no constant wrangling over them.

Harvard is a private university. It can ask for grants from both leagues, but if one league decides to stop giving it grants it still has funding from the other.

Eventually private universities would tend to draw funding from whatever league its alumni base skews closest to, out of a need for reliability.

More importantly the brainpower coming from universities will tend to steer towards whichever league shows the most commitment to scientific progress, increasing the scientific industry of that league.

No war is ever over by Christmas.

Outrage addiction knows no parties. It has existed since at least ancient Roman times but the modern version is supercharged by a constant 24/7 barrage of visual media, especially social media. It exists to make people angry, all the time.

Just as the marijuana of today is far more potent than that of the 1970s because of selective cultivation, outrage media is far more potent today than it was just 25 years ago.

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This is how I feel about it too. In the past Democrats & left leaning voters had been resistant to taking hundreds of billions of dollars from the public sector & giving it too private companies, institutions & individuals. Harvard University is one of the most wealthies, most expensive & hardest to get into universities on the plant. The left being in favor of giving $300 billion in grants to Harvard goes against everything they used to stand for. There’s over 1,600 public colleges in the US that are mostly overseen by elected or politically appointed individuals & boards of regents. A contract for services from a private university is okay imo, but hundreds of billions of free dollars to a private university that the citizens have no say or control over is questionable at best.

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“Have cancer? Take ivermectin. Have ALS? Take ivermectin. Have Alzheimer’s? Double up the ivermectin.” when you a statement like that, you really need to show some proof, statics, something other than “MAGA’s say”. Your hatred of all things Trump or conservative clouds your judgement.

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Just curious, of all the billions we the people give to universities, how much of that money actually “accomplishes” something? Honest question. Does all that tax money do what it is supposed to do or does it go in someone’s pocket?

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From what I understand, many professors get paid six-figure salaries for actually “professing” about six hours a week. Grad students do everything else. A university near me had a “renowned” author on their faculty. A student raised a big fuss by asking “what did that person actually do, other than be a ‘status symbol’”? The person actually had ONE class a week.

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Good grief. Who tells you this stuff?
Three of my friends have doctorate degrees, and each one teaches at a different school (okay, one just retired from UNO). They’re in the classroom “professoring” five days a week, multiple classes a day. Much of their “free” time is spent creating a syllabus, determining appropriate topics for study, grading papers, dealing with students needs etc.

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Not that it matters to anyone but me, but my father was a professor at a University here. PhD in electrical engineering. He did not chase grants or research money. He taught and considered it one of the most rewarding experiences during his lifetime.

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