The Institute of Art and Ideas

How meaningless jobs became the norm | Catherine Liu vs Yaron Brook

Catherine Liu and Yaron Brook debate deindustrialization, the devaluation of skilled labour, and the decline of universities. As A.I. continues to advance at breakneck pace, is there any hope we can solve the crisis of employment and meaning? With a free trial, you can watch the full debate NOW at https://iai.tv/video/crisis-in-the-academy?utm_source=YouTube&utm_medium=description Universities, long celebrated as sanctuaries of free thought and intellectual rigour, have for centuries been regarded as the best way to educate and conduct research. But increasingly, this assumption is being questioned. A recent study found that two-thirds of academics feel their freedom to teach and study is being curtailed. In 2022 alone, over 1,000 instances of content warnings or text removals were documented across UK universities. While some academics now criticise PhD programmes as a way to extract "fees and cheap labour" from students, reports suggest that most academic papers are read by an average of just ten people. More than half of respondents now say that going to university is not worth it. And in the US, graduate student debt averages over $71,000, while similar information is often freely available online. Should we call time on the age of the university and find new, innovative ways to educate people? Should we leave research and innovation to the business sector and free-market forces? Or are universities still vital to our education and culture and can a radical overhaul restore them to their original purpose? #economics #politics #costofliving Yaron Brook is a political scientist, and chairman of the Ayn Rand Institute. He’s a bestselling author and the host of The Yaron Brook Show. Catherine Liu is a Professor of Film and Media Studies at the University of California, Irvine. She’s the author of Virtue Hoarders: The Case against the Professional Managerial Class Eric Kaufmann is Professor of Politics at the University of Buckingham. He’s the author of Taboo and Whiteshift: Immigration, Populism and the Future of White Majorities. Jay Shapiro hosts. The Institute of Art and Ideas features videos and articles from cutting edge thinkers discussing the ideas that are shaping the world, from metaphysics to string theory, technology to democracy, aesthetics to genetics. Subscribe today! https://iai.tv/subscribe?utm_source=YouTube&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=crisis-in-the-academy 00:00 Deindustrialization in America 00:53 Catherine Liu on the political and economic crisis in employment 04:06 Yaron Brook on the abandonment of logic and reason in academia 06:44 "We keep inventing meaningless jobs" 08:34 Interrogating a system that wants to extract profit from any enterprise For debates and talks: https://iai.tv For articles: https://iai.tv/articles For courses: https://iai.tv/iai-academy/courses