Exactly, that Austrian woman that tried to get rid of all her wealth found out that its impossible because even if she’s at £0 she knows too many people that will support her ideas, drive too much publicity to her causes, and food, shelter, board seats, academia, and everything else is always accessible. The path doesn’t have to be forged.

Universities were always finishing schools for the elite, for like 1,000 years its been that way, and the best ones in the US are here for that since before the country was incorporated, here since almost half a millennia ago!

The last 80 odd years of dealing with the lower class and proletariat at all is a footnote and will be an experiment of folly deep in a university archive for the next 1,000 years as they merely revert to the mean.

Every problem that universities have go away when they go back to their roots. Its the corporate and public sector that tied access to having a degree from these places, that’s not the university’s problem.

And to your point, correct, if the proletariat were only surrounded by themselves they would not want to be there.

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xmonkee 6 days ago | parent | next [-]

This is such a bizarre and gross take. Yes our history is a history of class struggle. But history does progress. For thousands of years we were supposed to be property of kings so shall we mean revert to that?

I went to an “elite” public university in India which has a sub 1% acceptance rate. It was mostly extremely smart and driven middle class kids from incredibly diverse social backgrounds. Everyone had the time of their lives. And almost everyone now (20 years later) is doing incredibly well in life. They are doing startups, public policy, research, tech leadership etc. There is zero legacy admissions. And yes there is a network effect, of course. You can count on the friends you made at uni, but not because they inherited the influence. You don’t have to lick boots to have a good life.

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rr808 6 days ago | parent | next [-]

> They are doing startups, public policy, research, tech leadership etc.

This is very high level technical success, or tech elite probably upper middle or lower upper class. It isn't true elite - where did the regular company CEOs and Politicians study? Those are the truly elite universities I'm talking about.

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xmonkee 5 days ago | parent [-]

A lot of the CEOs in the US currently come from this uni. It's called IIT, in case you're curious. There's also IIMs which are based on the same model but for business studies. Also no legacy admissions. Also produce a metric ton of CEOs and execs. There are none more elite than these, at least in India. The politicians in my country are rarely highly educated, otoh.

	▲	rr808 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		Thanks yes I have worked with a bunch of people from IITs. > The politicians in my country are rarely highly educated, This is what I'm getting at. Most countries are like this, the truly wealthy and powerful aren't technical geniuses, they're good at networking and politics.

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jjmarr 6 days ago | parent | prev [-]

IIT is arguably better than a lot of "elite" American universities.

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PeterStuer 6 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The 'roots' were places of intellectual amusement, only for the very affluent idle and the clergy.

Ain't nobody else had time for that.

	▲	forkeep 4 days ago \| parent [-]
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justinhj 6 days ago | parent | prev [-]

They really shouldn't get public money then

	▲	yieldcrv 6 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I agree, this article is relevant to my interests because Stanford is doing just that! At the state level Looking forward to inspiring consensus to do it at the federal level voluntarily too. The federal administration catalyzing that won’t be controversial after its done. The current board members at these schools just need to be inspired by another school. W Stanford
	▲	forkeep 4 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
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