the USA built a system of higher education so good that smart/rich people from across the world came here, spending billions to learn here, subsidizing education for Americans while spending money to live in our cities and towns. our government arbitrarily decided we should stop doing that
It is not arbitrary; ask Stephen Miller; otherwise, it is correct. 😏
UK universities will cash in.
Trump is creating Putin's dream of making USA a third world country with no strong allies and breaking it into pieces
If Harvard (or Yale or princeton or any other elite school) only graduates the best students of the United States, they will no longer be the gold standard of the world, regardless of what American exceptionalism tells us.
The only thing Project 2025 and the Republican Party did about anything that bolsters American prosperity, global role, and flourishing of people in the USA was destroy it. For no purpose. Every plank--innovation, knowledge, healthcare, education, influence--they HATE that thing. That's all it was.
Filling in all the pools…and dancing gleefully while they do it.
They hate knowledge, truth, freedom--reality itself. Reality doesn't confirm their hate. Reality must go.
"They are trying to create a flat Earth." youtu.be/JTfhYyTuT44
Yes, exactly that. This'll show them! The wokeists. We can ALL die of cancer now.
Apparently, it wasn't that great... look where you ended up, jerking off to #nba cheerleader 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
And now these fools have bought into the latest "suffering is actually good" nonsense that they are probably seeing the same stories but are cheering.
Subsidizing *what*?
I mean, all other points: yes since typically we just all benefit from free movement, trade and tourism and it's a hilarious self own to pretend that these things are somehow limited in quantity and should be horded.
Art of the deal
Not only that but who fills the vacuum? China or Europe. And we're not replacing those incredibly smart students with Americans - at least not from the MAGA crowd.
bsky.app/profile/cram...
In New York, North Carolina, the largest single employer is the public uni system. In New York, our colleges are in the places that need jobs the most. Just a massive policy success we’ve chosen to throw away.
I think in 20 years time we'll be saying, "remember when people went to college?" It's a relic.
Well yes but they were spreading dangerous truths like "republicans are racists" or "israel is doing genocide"
Slashing the nose to spite our face.
Elite education in America has nothing to do with quality, but about making connections with other rich and powerful people.
Why are Dems doing ANYTHING for the party that did this? How is being bipartisan with the people who did this a good thing?
last couple guys have gotten themselves some really trash advisors amirite
Klan 3.0 loves only itself. Everyone else is here at their sufferance.
This doesn't even include the huge chunk of GDP directly attributable to those students once they graduate and get jobs in America
America gives itself a lobotomy.
We didn't get value for the "subsidy". It wasn't a subsidy, some large institutions amassed large endowments, invested in property development often displacing residents who's children would never attend those schools. So when Trump came for them, they had less public support than they should have.
Any chance you'd be willing to elaborate?
And destroyed the pipeline for innovation. Other countries will surpass us in innovation and reap the long-term economic benefits. This is not “just four years” this is kneecapping US growth for decades
Copying the UK, weirdly.
It’s ok to say “in a fever dream of racism” instead of calling it arbitrary Pretending we don’t know why is helping give them cover
We are increasing debt like crazy like last time. So fiscally responsibility like a drunken sailer on steroids!
Trump himself said he likes stupid people.
They think it will free up seats for the white boys because they have no idea how any of this works. No one has a seat if the school goes broke.
They'll keep a couple of the Ivies so that their kids can have a "Harvard education" and degree, but the education part will be gone for everyone.
Vance said universities are the enemy and that’s true. Critical thinking and an educated population are enemies of fascists and autocrats. They seek to usher in a new Dark Age where rich tech bros have their own kingdom where they rule over uneducated poverty stricken serfs.
Is a white supremacist the top dog in the empire of dirt? That's all they care about. They don't care if the money and prestige and international power disappears, they are removing challenges to their rule at home and they will destroy everything else to keep it.
republicans are ok with turning america into a giant backwater shithole if it means less brown people
Literally this. Make it into a country no one wants to come to, if that is what it takes. Shit in the bathtub and the well… as federal policy
In Trump’s view, if this reduces the riches and prestige of universities, then it is good. If in the long run it reduces America, so be it. Trump doesn’t have much of a long game.
I keep waiting for private industry to start freaking out about the destruction of higher education. Business is inarguably the number one biggest beneficiary of this system.
The problem is most of enterprise has convinced itself they don’t need higher ed anymore.
That would require long-term thinking, which is not a strength of the executive class these days. "We can cut our costs by replacing junior employees with AI!" "Cool, what's the development pipeline for senior employees?" "... Do we need one of those?"
Also related is that they fail to realize that AI is getting its seed content from somewhere. Outside of the hallucinations, which are generally total trash, the models are relying on information from people. If all those people are now underemployed in the service industries, what happens?
A classic tragedy of the commons problem. When most of the Internet is AI slop, the ability of AI to deliver accurate information will evaporate.
“We can just poach senior employees from other companies” “Ugh…everyone is trying to steal my senior employees, this should be illegal!” “Senior employees are so overpaid, it’s unfair”
Ironic that they learned this attitude in business school.
It's hurting America's trade balance.
“Our government” is doing heavy lifting there. It’s been specific administrations, and especially the insane fascists currently occupying our government systems. Assigning blame to “government” in generic terms is part of the reason we have so many anti-gov people who don’t understand government.
But now a bunch of mediocre white failsons can get overpaid jobs they don't really qualify for. Which was always the point.
All you good people- if you have not yet, please join your local Indivisible or other grassroots organization and find ways to push back.
Absolutely not arbitrary and it’s dangerous to think it is
One way to discourage immigration is by wrecking a country so badly that no one wants to live there.
Aber unser Blut bleibt dabei rein.
With all that is going on and a dictatorship taking place right before our eyes, why would anyone want to risk coming for education. Another shot in the foot. Candidates make connections and take American business practices home. Who would want that anyway?
This plan was promoted by not your government, but capitalists who support the Heritage Foundation and the like and who want less people in the USA and in the world to access knowledge about how society works. I know you can see through the thin veil of liberal democracy. Just follow the money! ;-)
Good point. International students usually pay the full "sticker price" for tuition. Without that revenue, universities that have already seen funding cuts from states will be in an even tighter financial situation. That would likely translate to higher tution costs for all other students.
the racism just soaked into their brains so much that they did an oopsie
A lot of replies to this assume that arbitrary means “by chance” when it also (and originally) means “by an act of individual preference as opposed to legal or rational necessity.” An example of something a university might teach you.
Now I'm disappointed ppl often think 'arbitrary' means 'random'
It's not just arbitrary but also capricious
Being here also generally gave the children of the global elite a more positive view of America.
Worked well both ways. Gave those of us who grew up in nearly all white areas our first real, in-depth experiences with people from other cultures.
I did not have the good fortune to grow up in a college town but I can imagine the many benefits.
I didn't mean to imply that I did. I left the rural US to attend college in a large city.
“…could see”? Projection. I’ll wait for the numbers to come in. Actually wouldn’t more people applying cause college prices to increase and also limit the number of open seats for our home grown young people? INFLATION: to many dollars chasing too few goods.
And many of those rich foreigners are now helping destroy it
More accurately, REPUBLICANS arbitrarily decided we should stop doing that. It's not government, it's REPUBLICANS. It's important to be specific because there are actual people responsible.
I live near the Carnegie museums, and the campuses of Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh. Between slashed research & humanities funding and the loss of international students, the universities and local economy are in for a world of hurt.
Squirrel Hill is one of the coolest, most culturally rich city neighborhoods in the nation. This will be socially devastating.
I'm not in favor of universities subsidizing themselves with rich kids from overseas, who then go home after training, to compete with us. Sorry, it's a really bad model. Gotta figure out other ways to make college affordable.
Agree with everything but the arbitrarily part. And I only reply because I think it’s important we connect everything to the larger plan to isolate us from the world. The destruction of any established powers that could threaten or fight back IS the authoritarian agenda of this administration.
Fascists despise educators!
College towns are going to get a wake up call fall of 2026.
I believe the all-out war on education began with intrinsic racism & bigotry of the U.S. & grew to include the realization that any/all intellectualism presents the single greatest mortal threat to consolidated power. While not at all surprising, it's incredibly sad to see it all being decimated.
Not our government. Republicans decided. Because they are wholly owned by foreign enemies that only wish to see America decline and fail.
They want us dumber and poorer, so we’re easier to dominate as they consolidate their wealth and power at the country’s expense.
The system of federal funding and commitment to research was rooted in the 1950’s and post WWII values to make sure US knowledge base and capabilities were strong so that the country was better situated to defend and protect its deeper values. All slashed. After decades the country has forgotten.
It wasn't arbitrary. The Republican Party has been campaigning on an anti-higher education platform for decades now.
Not to mention just a less valuable education for students. If you domt see added value in having people from all over the world in your classes....you probably went to a homogeneous school.
Literally the backbone of our economy
And staying here to build things that made the country a global leader in all sorts of technology
Look, anyone can let an empire slowly crumble the way empires throughout history have done. But our very special boys with billions and the politicians they own have decided that fail fast is the way to go, and by golly the failure is fast and furiousAF!