zoogs
New member
Something I've been thinking about a lot recently about this horrendous new tax bill is, why? For those who don't know, among its many boilerplate trademark Republican travesties of upward wealth redistribution is a provision to multiply the tax burden for doctoral students.
PhD students don't pay tuition. Officially they are sponsored for it, and universities can and do say this is a ~$60,000 expense (it certainly is for master's students, who pay their own way). On top of that, PhD students receive stipends. Effectively, they work full time but don't get paid very much, perhaps around $30k/yr while contributing to research and scholarship. One of the many clever ways Paul Ryan and his companions are finding money to pay for things like the private jet tax break is saying, "Hey, wait a minute, let's say PhD students are getting paid their tuition and must be taxed on it." This puts a grad student in the $30k income tax bracket up to the $80k bracket. Where they may have had to pay ~$3k in taxes before, for example, their new tax burden will increase maybe to $12-13k. Keep in mind they're still only earning that roughly $30k, which on its own is not that much to live on.
I don't understand how anyone could even pursue a doctorate -- five to seven years' commitment, or more! -- unless they are independently or previously wealthy, under this new reality. Why on earth would you do this?
There are a couple of strong benefits for the Republican ruling class, however. First, a really large proportion of graduate students in the U.S. are international. I'm not sure how this breaks down to the doctoral students exactly, but in some fields at least the number for grad students overall is as high as 70%. The visa crunch and the uncertainty of being able to stay in the US after schooling has already driven bright international students elsewhere for graduate studies. Higher education is one of the ways the US brings in immigration. Putting the clamps down is going to be a very effective means of reshaping the cultural makeup of America in the long term. Read this no other way than 'make America white again'.
Second, people with high levels of education oppose Republicans at extremely high rates, and that extends beyond simple questions of scientific literacy. You don't really even need a graduate degree, really, to see these effects, but attacking graduate education is also just one part of attacking education in general. The other, simultaneous prongs of this include "charter schools", "for-profit colleges are just as good", etc. Every authoritarian, autocratic regime in history has gone after the intelligentsia, because these are the people who don't put up with their bulls#!t. Mao's Cultural Revolution won't fly in America -- I think -- but depressing interest in/ability to pursue higher education is going to be an invisible, imperceptible way to accomplish these things. Reshape the electorate to be less literate, less diverse, and more in hock to the corporate oligarchy which will continue to do very well.
We can't accept this. And yet, I fear we will.
PhD students don't pay tuition. Officially they are sponsored for it, and universities can and do say this is a ~$60,000 expense (it certainly is for master's students, who pay their own way). On top of that, PhD students receive stipends. Effectively, they work full time but don't get paid very much, perhaps around $30k/yr while contributing to research and scholarship. One of the many clever ways Paul Ryan and his companions are finding money to pay for things like the private jet tax break is saying, "Hey, wait a minute, let's say PhD students are getting paid their tuition and must be taxed on it." This puts a grad student in the $30k income tax bracket up to the $80k bracket. Where they may have had to pay ~$3k in taxes before, for example, their new tax burden will increase maybe to $12-13k. Keep in mind they're still only earning that roughly $30k, which on its own is not that much to live on.
I don't understand how anyone could even pursue a doctorate -- five to seven years' commitment, or more! -- unless they are independently or previously wealthy, under this new reality. Why on earth would you do this?
There are a couple of strong benefits for the Republican ruling class, however. First, a really large proportion of graduate students in the U.S. are international. I'm not sure how this breaks down to the doctoral students exactly, but in some fields at least the number for grad students overall is as high as 70%. The visa crunch and the uncertainty of being able to stay in the US after schooling has already driven bright international students elsewhere for graduate studies. Higher education is one of the ways the US brings in immigration. Putting the clamps down is going to be a very effective means of reshaping the cultural makeup of America in the long term. Read this no other way than 'make America white again'.
Second, people with high levels of education oppose Republicans at extremely high rates, and that extends beyond simple questions of scientific literacy. You don't really even need a graduate degree, really, to see these effects, but attacking graduate education is also just one part of attacking education in general. The other, simultaneous prongs of this include "charter schools", "for-profit colleges are just as good", etc. Every authoritarian, autocratic regime in history has gone after the intelligentsia, because these are the people who don't put up with their bulls#!t. Mao's Cultural Revolution won't fly in America -- I think -- but depressing interest in/ability to pursue higher education is going to be an invisible, imperceptible way to accomplish these things. Reshape the electorate to be less literate, less diverse, and more in hock to the corporate oligarchy which will continue to do very well.
We can't accept this. And yet, I fear we will.
