this post was submitted on 06 Sep 2023
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HC: Insurance companies.
Uni: Administration. There are more administrators than teaching staff. A lot more.
That's funny, it seems like in every industry humanity has invented there's a tiny owner class just skimming a huge chunk off the top like parasites.
I guess they just tank the drain/hit until they keel over from exsanguination.
Those people used to be secretaries, janitors, laborers, farm hands, etc. Now we call the administrators, clerks, representatives, etc.
For universities, you're right. Tuition costs have linearly scaled with both reductions in state taxes devoted to universities and the number and salary of nonfaculty university employees, but the number of faculty or average faculty salaries haven't been strongly correlated with tuition over time. It used to be the case that each college had one dean, and now many have 10, and sometimes up to 30. Not to mention all of their administrative assistants, etc.
And worse, many of them pay people to sit on boards and do nothing but insert bureaucracy. Higher end colleges also pay famous people to be staff that don't teach but "advise" the boards and staff.