The 'Knowledge Class' Needs a Reality Check

"Jukka Savolainen's op-ed "The Alienated 'Knowledge Class' Could Turn Violent" (May 22) reminded me of the scene in "Blazing Saddles" when Gene Wilder advises Cleavon Little not to confront Mongo. "Don't do that," he says. "If you shoot him, you'll just make him mad."

 

As I see it, American universities are getting their just deserts. To say that the Trump administration should take its foot off the gas in its showdown against Harvard and its peers means these universities wouldn't receive the free-market discipline they badly need. Advanced-degree holders in political science or philosophy aren't filling a market need. This signal would normally lead fewer students to pursue these fields. This doesn't happen because taxpayers subsidize this inefficient employment pipeline through guaranteed student loans, tax-free endowments and government grants.

 

If all federal subsidies to universities end, we would see tuition plummet as colleges scramble to compete with each other for a scarce supply of qualified 18-year-olds. The humanities and social sciences would clean house and rid themselves of useless programs to offer what they should have been doing in the first place: rigorous liberal arts instruction.

 

Nate Braden

 

Denver" [1]

 

1. The 'Knowledge Class' Needs a Reality Check. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 30 May 2025: A14.