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ONE of the oddest things about the brutal post-crash economy is that the average-is-over cries by neoliberals to educate the workforce for a global world have accompanied hard times for many educated people. It’s especially true for academics caught in the adjunct trap, though it is not unique to struggling scholars. It’s certainly an issue with troubling implications for the creative class, both those who’ve sought a berth inside the university system and those who haven’t.
A new story by a very tough-minded journalist I know slightly, Alissa Quart (who often writes about nonconformity and poverty; her most recent book is Republic of Outsiders) recently went up. (Originally in Elle, this link is to The Investigative Fund’s site.) Here’s her lead:
Professor Bolin, or Brianne, as she tells her students to call her, might as well be invisible. When I arrive at the building at Columbia College in Chicago where she teaches composition, I ask the assistant at the front desk how to locate her. “Bolin?” she asks, sounding puzzled, as she scans the faculty list. “I’m sorry, I don’t see that name.” There is no Brianne Bolin to be found, even though she’s taught four classes a year here for the past five years. She doesn’t have a phone extension to her name, never mind an office.
You can probably guess a bit where it goes from here, but the storytelling is really strong. I can only link to part of the story here — the rest is behind a paywall — but I assure all that is worth a read.
How did we get to a place where the stock market triples in just a few years time, with income at the top surging, while median income goes down? Or with universities — even public universities — jacking their prices way beyond what middle-class folks can afford, while professors with advanced degrees and years of experience are treated like this?
Another bit from her piece:
Much political rhetoric these days is devoted to the importance of broadening access to college—and there is plenty of evidence that it’s still better financially to have a degree than not—but in the postcrash world of 2014, a good education may not keep you from hovering near the poverty line. The number of people with graduate degrees receiving food assistance or other forms of federal aid nearly tripled between 2007 and 2010, according to the U.S. Census. More specifically, 28 percent of food-stamp households were headed by a person with at least some college education in 2013, compared with 8 percent in 1980, according to an analysis by University of Kentucky economists.
Simply appalling. Please read Alissa’s story.
UPDATE: The full story is here.
Where is Quart’s complete article? (I can’t find it, pay wall or not.)
It is no mystery how the situation Quart describes evolved. It is the result of very consciously created economic policies beginning in the late 70s and supported by every administration since then. The idea is to privilege the wealthy so that their money will trickle down to the lower classes. This is, of course, nonsense. As Will Rogers noted about 80 years ago, money trickles up, not down. And we see this in practice. According to a Pew study, between 2009 and 2011 the wealthiest 7% got wealthier by a big 28%, while the rest of us got poorer by 4%.
This transfer of wealth to the wealthy, includes so-called “reforms” to create greater economic efficiency. Any form of labor that can be paid less, will be. Out-sourcing to foreign labor markets, reducing employees to adjunct positions, the privatization of publicly owned services, the elimination of unions, and automation are all part of this. Our vast rust belt and the destruction of entire cities such as Detroit are a direct result of these policies.
This also points to the problems with our system of funding the arts by donations from the wealthy. The rich increased their wealth by 28 percent between 2009 and 2011, but philanthropic giving only increased by 3%. When money flows to the top, it increasingly aggregates there. Put in very simplified colloquial terms, people get rich by being pigs, and pigs ain’t noted for generosity. This is also the inherent flaw in America’s system of funding the arts by donations from rich people. As we see in practice, this ends in a few elite institutions for rich folks in a few financial centers, while the rest of the country is told to go to hell. Never mind, let’s all pretend its a mystery.
I mostly agree about why things have gotten so bad–right on the mark.
But in regard to public funding, we have all seen what torment the NEH and NEA go through. I agree it would be better for public funding to replace private funding, but since there’s no consensus on what to fund or how to fund it, and with the political schism that is tearing apart the country, I don’t see any plausible way to bring public (federal) funding into the picture. And localities (even states) don’t have the money, either. (Or they are only willing to spend it for sports-related activities and then only for construction.) We have allowed art to become synonymous with elitism, so any spending for it is immediately attacked. It’s part of the Balkanization of American culture.
What does it say about our concept of democracy that we cannot even consider having a comprehensive system of public arts funding like every other developed country in the world has long had? What does this say about our intellectual climate and our processes of education? It would appear that freedom of speech is promoted only so long as it is impotent. When it begins to create significant change, it is crushed.
It certainly does not say good things about 21st century America, does it? There are some things we do pretty well, but this is not one of them.
Free speech? I don’t see anyone promoting free speech or practicing it! Haven’t you noticed how silent and invisible the intelligentsia has been for the past four to six years? Where are the black leaders who are speaking out about the Republican assault on abortion, voting rights, and medical coverage? Where are the feminists objecting to the Republican assault on feminist issues? Where are the public intellectuals who are bold enough to step forward and say that health insurance for citizens is a good thing? There’s been a deafening silence on all fronts. It would seem not just that the American left has been silent but that it has gone out of existence..
When the massive brain washing of the public and a careful manipulation of the media renders free speech impotent, people no longer bother. The defeated silence of the intelligentsia testifies to the enormous success American plutocracy has had in propagandizing its own people. So how can one break through this wall of silence and speak truth to power? How can we begin to tear down the delusions of society? Old questions, but perhaps never more relevant than now.