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Because most PhDs are crap and would do nothing worthwhile even if funded to unlimited levels. There is no need to flatter the conceits of this crowd. 90% of them have far too high an opinion of themselves. I say this as one of the median ones from a β€œtop” school.
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Yea, I hear that. I never went beyond my bachelors for the same reason, but maybe that's just an argument to make better PhDs/schools? Certainly there's important humanities work to be done during a massive cultural / political shift, and little progress is being made.
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I think the PhD is an obsolete mechanism. "Important" is doing a lot of work there. Even in STEM where the case is easier to make objectively ("cure cancer! solve climate!") it is dangerous to let self-absorbed people decide what is "important" on the public dime.
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Probably good things at micro-level so long as the entrance and exit criteria are relatively stringent and time-bound. But possibly bad things macro-level relating to funding. Free advanced-ed = fat state = cronyist corruption/planned economy crap.
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I think 90% of academia in general should be re-amateurized as a side hustle for people who have a living from other sources. I suspect a talented anthropologist would do better work if they could earn a good wage flipping burgers half-time than as full time researcher.
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People don't get the extreme moral hazard of funding for PhDs from basically unaccountable sources captured by cartels of their own advisors. It's a self-perpetuating system of self-congratulatory production.
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