sweeping social evaluations like this one have left me cold these days -- too many particulars in this messy world today. Instead of finding a perpetrator socia

sweeping social evaluations like this one have left me cold these days -- too many particulars in this messy world today. Instead of finding a perpetrator social class with some catchy acronym, why not try factual data? The top administrator payroll at a decent-sized school has been described recently as more like a mafia system -- outsiders are plentiful and there are things for them to do with some vague promise that they might prosper for it. Insiders are worked hard and at the lowest levels, get worse treatment than most outsiders. Once the promotional levels get into the picture, ruthless and relentless infighting not visible to other insiders or outsiders, culls the herd that wants to rise to the top; most fail or tire of the fight. Then, apex roles like top administrator, or Head Coach for a profitable sports team, make old-world style agreements with many multiples of income of their nearest rival, signalling dominance, and serving as a goalpost for achievement supposedly available to "anyone." There are thousands of situations like this across wealthy nations, hidden behind the middle class success they breed on. It is even extolled as a virtue among the predatory capitalists as "competition". This state of affairs is a social default - not some political development of our times. This is ancient as societies go.. it is sometimes startling to see it starkly. I suspect that more than half of higher education by numbers are failing financially right now, while some small number of institutions echo the money-printing economy numbers of the last fifteen years.