This tweet by Ben Shapiro is causing a bit of a stir.
It is the standard Republican line about university: everyone should stand on their own two feet, society shouldn't have systems to support people, people shouldn't expect others to pay their debts, etc. Implicit in all of this is the assumption that higher education is purely training for employment, or else is mere indulgence.
I hate all of this.
I think a sensible society understands that a lot of what could be taught at university (namely, the humanities) has little direct connection with the economy, but that it is worthwhile anyway. Yes, a good society values philosophy and wants people trained in it, not in their own time by reading web pages, but by the best and most learned minds in the country. The same goes for history, literature, theology, art history, etc. A society that does not value these things is really just a Walmart with pretensions.
Of course, this education should be limited to that small fraction of the public who can handle it, so it isn't a huge deal financially. The vast majority of people should not go to university, but the few who do, should do so for free because it is paid for by a benevolent state which values culture and civilisation above the precious GDP. There should not be a crap university every 20 miles; there should be a clutch of great institutions that give pride to the whole nation.
I cannot believe that funding Cambridge, Oxford, Durham, St Andrew's and Edinburgh universities would be a huge burden to the British economy. Meantime, the benefits in cultural health would be massive.
What's more, STEM degrees could be partly funded by the companies which benefit from the resulting graduates. Maybe similar arrangements could help fund the humanities too.
And Ben Shapiro should be in Israel, telling them to be more economically efficient and to stop relying on others. The line he is pushing among Americans is one that will make them cultureless consumers, rootless and rudderless.
