Go ahead and object that “nothing is really free”, but “free at point of use”, once we’re being specific, is useful. It means, “This service is accessible without paying up-front, because the costs are being paid elsewhere.”
Fair point.
Also, please, not every LW comment necessitates conceptual nitpicking.
It wasn’t a “gotcha, you’re technically wrong” comment. It was central to the point we’re arguing, which is that academia is a net benefit. If the comment was meant in a tongue in cheek “I’m not actually making a real argument for academia, just saying something silly” way, it wasn’t clear to me.
If you were actually advancing an argument that academia is useful because it publishes research, you need to prove that the research does enough good to justify the costs it extracts from it’s students. It is a meta point, but it’s not an irrelevant nitpick—it’s central to you’re argument.
If you were actually advancing an argument that academia is useful because it publishes research, you need to prove that the research does enough good to justify the costs it extracts from it’s students.
Ok, there’s a confusion here I feel a need to correct: research is almost entirely not funded by students. Teaching is funded by students. Administration is (gratuitously and copiously, beyond anything necessary) funded by students. Teaching and administration are also often funded by endowments and state block grants. Research is (by and large) funded by research grants, and in fact, the level of research output required to justify each dollar of grant has gone solidly up.
Fair point.
It wasn’t a “gotcha, you’re technically wrong” comment. It was central to the point we’re arguing, which is that academia is a net benefit. If the comment was meant in a tongue in cheek “I’m not actually making a real argument for academia, just saying something silly” way, it wasn’t clear to me.
If you were actually advancing an argument that academia is useful because it publishes research, you need to prove that the research does enough good to justify the costs it extracts from it’s students. It is a meta point, but it’s not an irrelevant nitpick—it’s central to you’re argument.
Ok, there’s a confusion here I feel a need to correct: research is almost entirely not funded by students. Teaching is funded by students. Administration is (gratuitously and copiously, beyond anything necessary) funded by students. Teaching and administration are also often funded by endowments and state block grants. Research is (by and large) funded by research grants, and in fact, the level of research output required to justify each dollar of grant has gone solidly up.