I recenty wrote an essay called The Academy’s Great Misdirection. I argue that America’s higher‑education system has drifted into obsolescence—expanding bureaucracy, inflating credentials, and steering young people away from the adaptive skills the moment actually demands. It’s a critique of an institution that once prepared citizens for change but now misguides a generation standing at the edge of profound societal transformation. I would love some feedback. You can find it at The Academy's Great Misdirection
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Welcome TheRealCA!
Thank you for your essay which introduces, stresses, explains highly important facts. It is rewardingly concrete, specifies figures, and makes a strong case - which badly needs to be made - for real learning, real work in a changed, changing and challenging world.
I want to give our readers a taste of the points you ask us to consider. So I quote a section, not because it is the best but because, as one among many “bests”, it is immediately recognizable as true:
[E]conomic strength is the bloodstream of national defense. A nation’s military, its industrial base, its technological edge—all of it rests on the foundation of economic vitality. When billions of dollars in earning power, innovation, and technical capability flow outward instead of inward, the damage is not linear. It compounds.
Every dollar sent abroad is a dollar not invested here. Every dollar not invested here is a dollar that must be borrowed, taxed, or sacrificed elsewhere. The fiscal impact doubles, then doubles again, because the opportunity cost is borne by the nation that trained the talent but did not retain the benefit.
This is not abstract. It is arithmetic.
And the second front is even more direct: we are training the world’s engineers, scientists, and technologists—including those who will design, build, outfit, and lead the military forces of nations whose strategic interests do not align with ours. This is not speculation; it is documented history.
The uncomfortable truth is that the United States has become the world’s premier training ground not only for global industry, but for global power projection. We educate the talent that strengthens other nations’ economies, and in many cases, their militaries. We do this while our own defense industrial base struggles with workforce shortages, aging expertise, and a shrinking pipeline of domestic technical graduates distracted by a misaligned academy.
This is not an argument for isolation. It is an argument for awareness.
A nation that trains the world must at least understand the strategic consequences of doing so.
Because if we do not, we will wake up one day to find that we have built not only the global workforce, but the global competition—and in some cases, the very forces that stand across from us on the world stage. I could argue that the “one day” has already passed.
The tragedy is that these global and strategic consequences do not even tell the whole story. The academy is not merely exporting capability abroad; it is doing so by draining resources at home. While we train foreign competitors and strengthen foreign militaries, we simultaneously ask American taxpayers to underwrite an education system that no longer serves them or their children. The same institutions that send talent outward also pull money inward—through subsidies, appropriations, tax breaks, and loan forgiveness—creating a domestic burden that mirrors the international one. In other words, the academy is costing us abroad and at home, weakening our strategic position while hollowing out our economic resilience. And nowhere is this more visible than in the staggering financial burden placed on American families and taxpayers.
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I hope all, or at least many, of our readers will read your essay with close attention. Ideally, someone will bring it to the notice of the Trump administration. Whether it will surprise the administrators or only confirm what they know I cannot guess, but I’m fairly sure it will focus their attention on urgent issues.
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First, thank you for reading and for your kind words, @jbecker. As and ex-Air Force member myself, I’m glad you chose to highlight that section on defense. We’ve really rolled in the infamous Trojan Horse and are giving access to our most valuable education, research, and technology to nations with their own, sometimes hostile agendas. Some in the U.S. seem to have forgotten that there is aggressive world-wide competition for defense enabling technologies–we’ve essentially made intelligence gathering much easier by opening the door for them.
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What you write about the universities is hugely important. We are indeed training our rivals and our enemies.
Is DEI stopping now?
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I don’t think I’d say it is stopping just yet. I do see the tide turning in a dramatic way that I wouldn’t have envisioned 18 months ago. The Trump admin has given voice to people that have remained silent for so long out of fear. Many corporations, where much of the blame should be placed, seem to be quietly backing things down. That said, I can see some of the most radical organizations of all kinds doubling-down on the DEI rhertoric. For them, the pressure threatens and backs them into a corner. Even if they see the contradictions in what they stand for, I think they feel it’s too late to turn back now. We are at a crucial time. The momentum we have needs to continue. I fear an unprecedented backlash if the election goes back to the left in 3 years.
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Yes, I agree. If the left returns to power they will take every illegal, unconstitutional step necessary to remain in power and crush all opposition, no holds barred.
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