The right wing press have gone full on Brexit betrayal , some hysterical headlines and lies about a youth mobility scheme . The Daily Mail screams freedom of movement for millions of young people from the EU.
The Telegraph drags out Kate Hoey whose grip on reality left her a long time ago.
What does the scheme say exactly?
Still talking.
"The two sides were also understood to be discussing the language on a youth mobility deal allowing 18- to 30-year-olds to travel more easily between Britain and the bloc, amid EU concern about quotas on numbers.
UK ministers have talked about a “smart and controlled” scheme, suggesting it would have a cap and be time-limited, operating along the lines of the 13 existing deals Britain has with countries including Australia and Canada."
Guardain
Well if nothings agreed no scheme to comment on, however I did pick up this " amid EU concern about quotas" if the quotas work 100k of ours 100k of yours dont see that as objectionable....if however its 100k of yours as many as want to come of ours yes objectionable....we aren't europes dumping ground for youth unemployment
The right wing press have gone full on Brexit betrayal , some hysterical headlines and lies about a youth mobility scheme . The Daily Mail screams freedom of movement for millions of young people from the EU.
The Telegraph drags out Kate Hoey whose grip on reality left her a long time ago.
What does the scheme say exactly?
Any scheme will be time limited , likely to 2 years and be capped much like the ones we have already with other countries . In the world of the right wing press this apparently will be freedom of movement with millions moving here .
Yvette Cooper in particular doesn’t want anything that could increase net migration . Even allowing for the possibility that less Brits take up the opportunity you’re unlikely to see a significant change to net migration .
The sticking point is fish ! The UK want a long term deal on SPS and the EU say okay but they want a long term deal on fish .
Well fish has nothing to do with youth mobility so they can fuck off
The right wing press have gone full on Brexit betrayal , some hysterical headlines and lies about a youth mobility scheme . The Daily Mail screams freedom of movement for millions of young people from the EU.
The Telegraph drags out Kate Hoey whose grip on reality left her a long time ago.
What does the scheme say exactly?
Any scheme will be time limited , likely to 2 years and be capped much like the ones we have already with other countries . In the world of the right wing press this apparently will be freedom of movement with millions moving here .
Yvette Cooper in particular doesn’t want anything that could increase net migration . Even allowing for the possibility that less Brits take up the opportunity you’re unlikely to see a significant change to net migration .
The sticking point is fish ! The UK want a long term deal on SPS and the EU say okay but they want a long term deal on fish .
Well fish has nothing to do with youth mobility so they can fuck off
Youth mobility isn’t connected to fish in the negotiations.
I will give the current government this. Their media briefing about the current talks with the EU, majoring on the issue of British travellers using EU passport queues & E-Gates is pretty smart. In many ways probably the least substantive thing in any agreement but if anything says all is well with our relationship with the EU for the average Briton, its the thought of rocking up on your summer hols and bleeping your way through passport control.
Twenty years ago most Brits would have voted to join the Euro to save all the buggering about with foreign exchange at the airport.
"Estimates suggest 52% of Philadelphia adults are functionally illiterate, with 67% reading at a 6th-8th grade level. About 40% struggle with tasks like job applications. Data comes from sources like Achieve Now and a 2020 NCES report, though recent 2025 figures are scarce. Poverty and education access likely drive these rates, but exact causes need more research."
A large American city where more than half of adults are illiterate. No wonder China is taking over
It's getting worse too as more people consume their media in video or audio format negating the everyday need to read the news or sports pages.
Western society is declining and there are parts of America where that decline feels terminal. Education standards in the US are a joke and even at the very top in the world's highest ranked universities there is now in inexorable decline in standards with more time being spent on nonsense and less on top level research. China is stealing a huge march on the US (and the west) by having a relentless results focussed approach. It's working.
Yep
Also, everyone is now just cheating in their essays, and the essay checkers accept this, and on it goes
Quite absurd. This is one reason why - as I keep telling the site, because I am correct - the higher education system is about to implode, spectacularly. It no longer offers value to the student OR the potential employer; it is doomed
You’re complaining about education standards declining while also being gleeful about the decline of higher education institutions. Honestly, WTF? I bet China do not talk down universities or people going to university. You are literally the problem.
That's got to be one of the most stupid takes I've seen on pb, which is really quite a high bar. I don't detect any glee from Leon, in fact quite the opposite that universities need to raise their standards to remain relevant.
Quite so
I have one daughter at a fine university, St Andrews, and another hoping to go to one next year, possibly Trinity Dublin
I believe they will - for many reasons (some of which I am forbidden from talking about on PB) - be amongst the last to do so. I reckon universities as we know them have 5-10 years left. I have held this opinion for a couple of years, on PB (often against much scorn) but I have seen nothing to dissuade me. Indeed the terminal line seems to be getting closer
I think it is very sad. University is a wonderful experience and a great idea, I just don't see how the economics works - for the vast majority - as the world moves on
Depends what "as we know them" means.
But universities as an idea and an institution have been going strong for hundreds of years. There will still be universities long after us.
I suspect Leon only really knows of uni by his experience of a three year arts degree. Uni is so much more than three lectures a week and writing essays at 4 am for a 9 am deadline. Science and engineering courses are much more involved with far more contact hours. And the courses are not really about teaching facts, it’s about ways of thinking and the ability to apply knowledge. Leon may be right and many courses might be about to start to struggle to recruit because students no longer regard the degree as value. But that argument was made when fees were imposed and hiked. A degree isn’t just the academic education.
But if Leon is right and then AI is about to destroy most all white collar jobs then were on the verge of a mssive change in the world.
And a robot tax funded by a UBI becomes inevitable
"Estimates suggest 52% of Philadelphia adults are functionally illiterate, with 67% reading at a 6th-8th grade level. About 40% struggle with tasks like job applications. Data comes from sources like Achieve Now and a 2020 NCES report, though recent 2025 figures are scarce. Poverty and education access likely drive these rates, but exact causes need more research."
A large American city where more than half of adults are illiterate. No wonder China is taking over
It's getting worse too as more people consume their media in video or audio format negating the everyday need to read the news or sports pages.
Western society is declining and there are parts of America where that decline feels terminal. Education standards in the US are a joke and even at the very top in the world's highest ranked universities there is now in inexorable decline in standards with more time being spent on nonsense and less on top level research. China is stealing a huge march on the US (and the west) by having a relentless results focussed approach. It's working.
Yep
Also, everyone is now just cheating in their essays, and the essay checkers accept this, and on it goes
Quite absurd. This is one reason why - as I keep telling the site, because I am correct - the higher education system is about to implode, spectacularly. It no longer offers value to the student OR the potential employer; it is doomed
You’re complaining about education standards declining while also being gleeful about the decline of higher education institutions. Honestly, WTF? I bet China do not talk down universities or people going to university. You are literally the problem.
That's got to be one of the most stupid takes I've seen on pb, which is really quite a high bar. I don't detect any glee from Leon, in fact quite the opposite that universities need to raise their standards to remain relevant.
Quite so
I have one daughter at a fine university, St Andrews, and another hoping to go to one next year, possibly Trinity Dublin
I believe they will - for many reasons (some of which I am forbidden from talking about on PB) - be amongst the last to do so. I reckon universities as we know them have 5-10 years left. I have held this opinion for a couple of years, on PB (often against much scorn) but I have seen nothing to dissuade me. Indeed the terminal line seems to be getting closer
I think it is very sad. University is a wonderful experience and a great idea, I just don't see how the economics works - for the vast majority - as the world moves on
Depends what "as we know them" means.
But universities as an idea and an institution have been going strong for hundreds of years. There will still be universities long after us.
I suspect Leon only really knows of uni by his experience of a three year arts degree. Uni is so much more than three lectures a week and writing essays at 4 am for a 9 am deadline. Science and engineering courses are much more involved with far more contact hours. And the courses are not really about teaching facts, it’s about ways of thinking and the ability to apply knowledge. Leon may be right and many courses might be about to start to struggle to recruit because students no longer regard the degree as value. But that argument was made when fees were imposed and hiked. A degree isn’t just the academic education.
But if Leon is right and then AI is about to destroy most all white collar jobs then were on the verge of a mssive change in the world.
And a robot tax funded by a UBI becomes inevitable
I think you mean UBI funded by a robot tax surely?
He was, of course, a typical product of Ceausescu's education system. No British student will ever bag two IMOs in a row. We just don't thrash them hard enough.
I discovered - fairly recently - that it was common to throw grains outside your door in Eastern Europe as vampires would stop to count them rather than enter your house. Then also found it was common practice in parts of SE Asia. Which made me wonder about the Mongol invasions.
The right wing press have gone full on Brexit betrayal , some hysterical headlines and lies about a youth mobility scheme . The Daily Mail screams freedom of movement for millions of young people from the EU.
The Telegraph drags out Kate Hoey whose grip on reality left her a long time ago.
What does the scheme say exactly?
Any scheme will be time limited , likely to 2 years and be capped much like the ones we have already with other countries . In the world of the right wing press this apparently will be freedom of movement with millions moving here .
Yvette Cooper in particular doesn’t want anything that could increase net migration . Even allowing for the possibility that less Brits take up the opportunity you’re unlikely to see a significant change to net migration .
The sticking point is fish ! The UK want a long term deal on SPS and the EU say okay but they want a long term deal on fish .
Well fish has nothing to do with youth mobility so they can fuck off
Youth mobility isn’t connected to fish in the negotiations.
It’s fish and SPS .
Part of the problem I had with freedom of movement when we were in the EU is we had to treat them as if they were british citizens. This works ok if all the states involved have similar rules but the simple fact is they don't. In britain we dont have a contributory system before you are eligble for benefits whereas a lot of european countries do. So they could come over and work a month then claim. Its why we had the idiocy for example of people coming over and being eligble for child benefit for the children still in their home country or as several people I shared accomodation with working no more than 16 hours but claiming everything they could.
I would by the way much prefer we made the change to a contributory system than have a two tier system for migrants
"Estimates suggest 52% of Philadelphia adults are functionally illiterate, with 67% reading at a 6th-8th grade level. About 40% struggle with tasks like job applications. Data comes from sources like Achieve Now and a 2020 NCES report, though recent 2025 figures are scarce. Poverty and education access likely drive these rates, but exact causes need more research."
A large American city where more than half of adults are illiterate. No wonder China is taking over
It's getting worse too as more people consume their media in video or audio format negating the everyday need to read the news or sports pages.
Western society is declining and there are parts of America where that decline feels terminal. Education standards in the US are a joke and even at the very top in the world's highest ranked universities there is now in inexorable decline in standards with more time being spent on nonsense and less on top level research. China is stealing a huge march on the US (and the west) by having a relentless results focussed approach. It's working.
Yep
Also, everyone is now just cheating in their essays, and the essay checkers accept this, and on it goes
Quite absurd. This is one reason why - as I keep telling the site, because I am correct - the higher education system is about to implode, spectacularly. It no longer offers value to the student OR the potential employer; it is doomed
You’re complaining about education standards declining while also being gleeful about the decline of higher education institutions. Honestly, WTF? I bet China do not talk down universities or people going to university. You are literally the problem.
That's got to be one of the most stupid takes I've seen on pb, which is really quite a high bar. I don't detect any glee from Leon, in fact quite the opposite that universities need to raise their standards to remain relevant.
Quite so
I have one daughter at a fine university, St Andrews, and another hoping to go to one next year, possibly Trinity Dublin
I believe they will - for many reasons (some of which I am forbidden from talking about on PB) - be amongst the last to do so. I reckon universities as we know them have 5-10 years left. I have held this opinion for a couple of years, on PB (often against much scorn) but I have seen nothing to dissuade me. Indeed the terminal line seems to be getting closer
I think it is very sad. University is a wonderful experience and a great idea, I just don't see how the economics works - for the vast majority - as the world moves on
Depends what "as we know them" means.
But universities as an idea and an institution have been going strong for hundreds of years. There will still be universities long after us.
I suspect Leon only really knows of uni by his experience of a three year arts degree. Uni is so much more than three lectures a week and writing essays at 4 am for a 9 am deadline. Science and engineering courses are much more involved with far more contact hours. And the courses are not really about teaching facts, it’s about ways of thinking and the ability to apply knowledge. Leon may be right and many courses might be about to start to struggle to recruit because students no longer regard the degree as value. But that argument was made when fees were imposed and hiked. A degree isn’t just the academic education.
But if Leon is right and then AI is about to destroy most all white collar jobs then were on the verge of a mssive change in the world.
And a robot tax funded by a UBI becomes inevitable
I think you mean UBI funded by a robot tax surely?
Whenever anyone advocates UBI you notice they never tell you how much each adult and child will get from it because they know it will never be affordable.
The average adult on uc when you include everything gets about 12k a year
We are also often told this is not enough to live on but assuming it is
Giving every adult in the country 12k a year ubi is going to cost about 600 billion on top of all the nhs spending etc and with a lot lower tax take as few people will be working
The secretive US factory that lays bare the contradiction in Trump's America First plan
It is, in my view, the most important factory in the world, and it's being built by a company you've never heard of: TSMC, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. It makes 90% of the world's advanced semiconductors.
The secretive US factory that lays bare the contradiction in Trump's America First plan
It is, in my view, the most important factory in the world, and it's being built by a company you've never heard of: TSMC, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. It makes 90% of the world's advanced semiconductors.
I don't really like being treated like an idiot. I am sure huge numbers of people know who TSMC are these days.
Well it tells us faisal islam is a fuckwit, pretty sure most here at least know who tsmc are plus anyone involved in any it role and theres a few of us, or anyone that reads the register, slashdot or any number of similar blogs
"Estimates suggest 52% of Philadelphia adults are functionally illiterate, with 67% reading at a 6th-8th grade level. About 40% struggle with tasks like job applications. Data comes from sources like Achieve Now and a 2020 NCES report, though recent 2025 figures are scarce. Poverty and education access likely drive these rates, but exact causes need more research."
A large American city where more than half of adults are illiterate. No wonder China is taking over
It's getting worse too as more people consume their media in video or audio format negating the everyday need to read the news or sports pages.
Western society is declining and there are parts of America where that decline feels terminal. Education standards in the US are a joke and even at the very top in the world's highest ranked universities there is now in inexorable decline in standards with more time being spent on nonsense and less on top level research. China is stealing a huge march on the US (and the west) by having a relentless results focussed approach. It's working.
Yep
Also, everyone is now just cheating in their essays, and the essay checkers accept this, and on it goes
Quite absurd. This is one reason why - as I keep telling the site, because I am correct - the higher education system is about to implode, spectacularly. It no longer offers value to the student OR the potential employer; it is doomed
You’re complaining about education standards declining while also being gleeful about the decline of higher education institutions. Honestly, WTF? I bet China do not talk down universities or people going to university. You are literally the problem.
That's got to be one of the most stupid takes I've seen on pb, which is really quite a high bar. I don't detect any glee from Leon, in fact quite the opposite that universities need to raise their standards to remain relevant.
Quite so
I have one daughter at a fine university, St Andrews, and another hoping to go to one next year, possibly Trinity Dublin
I believe they will - for many reasons (some of which I am forbidden from talking about on PB) - be amongst the last to do so. I reckon universities as we know them have 5-10 years left. I have held this opinion for a couple of years, on PB (often against much scorn) but I have seen nothing to dissuade me. Indeed the terminal line seems to be getting closer
I think it is very sad. University is a wonderful experience and a great idea, I just don't see how the economics works - for the vast majority - as the world moves on
Depends what "as we know them" means.
But universities as an idea and an institution have been going strong for hundreds of years. There will still be universities long after us.
I suspect Leon only really knows of uni by his experience of a three year arts degree. Uni is so much more than three lectures a week and writing essays at 4 am for a 9 am deadline. Science and engineering courses are much more involved with far more contact hours. And the courses are not really about teaching facts, it’s about ways of thinking and the ability to apply knowledge. Leon may be right and many courses might be about to start to struggle to recruit because students no longer regard the degree as value. But that argument was made when fees were imposed and hiked. A degree isn’t just the academic education.
But if Leon is right and then AI is about to destroy most all white collar jobs then were on the verge of a mssive change in the world.
And a robot tax funded by a UBI becomes inevitable
I think you mean UBI funded by a robot tax surely?
Whenever anyone advocates UBI you notice they never tell you how much each adult and child will get from it because they know it will never be affordable.
The average adult on uc when you include everything gets about 12k a year
We are also often told this is not enough to live on but assuming it is
Giving every adult in the country 12k a year ubi is going to cost about 600 billion on top of all the nhs spending etc and with a lot lower tax take as few people will be working
In addition to cost, the fundamental flaw is politicians and lobbying from the public. The advocates of UBI say you get rid of all other benefits because this will be enough to live on....
Immediately there will be calls for extra for this and that group and within 5 years it will be all over the shop just like every other benefit, with constant calls for an uplift for a particular struggling group by taking money off a group who are doing well and it not being fair they still get their UBI despite earning lots of money.
Even the most principled politician will find it hard to resists but think of the kids.....Jordon and Paris have 4 kids, they haven't worked for 20 years, they have developed a drink and drug problem and now the kids are going hungry because they spend all their UBI on substances....what we need is another benefit to ensure the kids don't go hungry....
"Estimates suggest 52% of Philadelphia adults are functionally illiterate, with 67% reading at a 6th-8th grade level. About 40% struggle with tasks like job applications. Data comes from sources like Achieve Now and a 2020 NCES report, though recent 2025 figures are scarce. Poverty and education access likely drive these rates, but exact causes need more research."
A large American city where more than half of adults are illiterate. No wonder China is taking over
It's getting worse too as more people consume their media in video or audio format negating the everyday need to read the news or sports pages.
Western society is declining and there are parts of America where that decline feels terminal. Education standards in the US are a joke and even at the very top in the world's highest ranked universities there is now in inexorable decline in standards with more time being spent on nonsense and less on top level research. China is stealing a huge march on the US (and the west) by having a relentless results focussed approach. It's working.
Yep
Also, everyone is now just cheating in their essays, and the essay checkers accept this, and on it goes
Quite absurd. This is one reason why - as I keep telling the site, because I am correct - the higher education system is about to implode, spectacularly. It no longer offers value to the student OR the potential employer; it is doomed
I don't understand why people cheat when they've been told not to. We were told not to cheat at school, and about 98% of pupils/students took that advice.
"Estimates suggest 52% of Philadelphia adults are functionally illiterate, with 67% reading at a 6th-8th grade level. About 40% struggle with tasks like job applications. Data comes from sources like Achieve Now and a 2020 NCES report, though recent 2025 figures are scarce. Poverty and education access likely drive these rates, but exact causes need more research."
A large American city where more than half of adults are illiterate. No wonder China is taking over
It's getting worse too as more people consume their media in video or audio format negating the everyday need to read the news or sports pages.
Western society is declining and there are parts of America where that decline feels terminal. Education standards in the US are a joke and even at the very top in the world's highest ranked universities there is now in inexorable decline in standards with more time being spent on nonsense and less on top level research. China is stealing a huge march on the US (and the west) by having a relentless results focussed approach. It's working.
Yep
Also, everyone is now just cheating in their essays, and the essay checkers accept this, and on it goes
Quite absurd. This is one reason why - as I keep telling the site, because I am correct - the higher education system is about to implode, spectacularly. It no longer offers value to the student OR the potential employer; it is doomed
I don't understand why people cheat when they've been told not to. We were told not to cheat at school, and about 98% of pupils/students took that advice.
"Estimates suggest 52% of Philadelphia adults are functionally illiterate, with 67% reading at a 6th-8th grade level. About 40% struggle with tasks like job applications. Data comes from sources like Achieve Now and a 2020 NCES report, though recent 2025 figures are scarce. Poverty and education access likely drive these rates, but exact causes need more research."
A large American city where more than half of adults are illiterate. No wonder China is taking over
It's getting worse too as more people consume their media in video or audio format negating the everyday need to read the news or sports pages.
Western society is declining and there are parts of America where that decline feels terminal. Education standards in the US are a joke and even at the very top in the world's highest ranked universities there is now in inexorable decline in standards with more time being spent on nonsense and less on top level research. China is stealing a huge march on the US (and the west) by having a relentless results focussed approach. It's working.
Yep
Also, everyone is now just cheating in their essays, and the essay checkers accept this, and on it goes
Quite absurd. This is one reason why - as I keep telling the site, because I am correct - the higher education system is about to implode, spectacularly. It no longer offers value to the student OR the potential employer; it is doomed
You’re complaining about education standards declining while also being gleeful about the decline of higher education institutions. Honestly, WTF? I bet China do not talk down universities or people going to university. You are literally the problem.
That's got to be one of the most stupid takes I've seen on pb, which is really quite a high bar. I don't detect any glee from Leon, in fact quite the opposite that universities need to raise their standards to remain relevant.
Quite so
I have one daughter at a fine university, St Andrews, and another hoping to go to one next year, possibly Trinity Dublin
I believe they will - for many reasons (some of which I am forbidden from talking about on PB) - be amongst the last to do so. I reckon universities as we know them have 5-10 years left. I have held this opinion for a couple of years, on PB (often against much scorn) but I have seen nothing to dissuade me. Indeed the terminal line seems to be getting closer
I think it is very sad. University is a wonderful experience and a great idea, I just don't see how the economics works - for the vast majority - as the world moves on
Depends what "as we know them" means.
But universities as an idea and an institution have been going strong for hundreds of years. There will still be universities long after us.
I suspect Leon only really knows of uni by his experience of a three year arts degree. Uni is so much more than three lectures a week and writing essays at 4 am for a 9 am deadline. Science and engineering courses are much more involved with far more contact hours. And the courses are not really about teaching facts, it’s about ways of thinking and the ability to apply knowledge. Leon may be right and many courses might be about to start to struggle to recruit because students no longer regard the degree as value. But that argument was made when fees were imposed and hiked. A degree isn’t just the academic education.
But if Leon is right and then AI is about to destroy most all white collar jobs then were on the verge of a mssive change in the world.
And a robot tax funded by a UBI becomes inevitable
I think you mean UBI funded by a robot tax surely?
Whenever anyone advocates UBI you notice they never tell you how much each adult and child will get from it because they know it will never be affordable.
The average adult on uc when you include everything gets about 12k a year
We are also often told this is not enough to live on but assuming it is
Giving every adult in the country 12k a year ubi is going to cost about 600 billion on top of all the nhs spending etc and with a lot lower tax take as few people will be working
Well if AI eliminates half the permanent jobs and makes much of the population unemployed apart from occasional contract work, a UBI is inevitable.
No government could be elected without backing one
"Estimates suggest 52% of Philadelphia adults are functionally illiterate, with 67% reading at a 6th-8th grade level. About 40% struggle with tasks like job applications. Data comes from sources like Achieve Now and a 2020 NCES report, though recent 2025 figures are scarce. Poverty and education access likely drive these rates, but exact causes need more research."
A large American city where more than half of adults are illiterate. No wonder China is taking over
It's getting worse too as more people consume their media in video or audio format negating the everyday need to read the news or sports pages.
Western society is declining and there are parts of America where that decline feels terminal. Education standards in the US are a joke and even at the very top in the world's highest ranked universities there is now in inexorable decline in standards with more time being spent on nonsense and less on top level research. China is stealing a huge march on the US (and the west) by having a relentless results focussed approach. It's working.
Yep
Also, everyone is now just cheating in their essays, and the essay checkers accept this, and on it goes
Quite absurd. This is one reason why - as I keep telling the site, because I am correct - the higher education system is about to implode, spectacularly. It no longer offers value to the student OR the potential employer; it is doomed
You’re complaining about education standards declining while also being gleeful about the decline of higher education institutions. Honestly, WTF? I bet China do not talk down universities or people going to university. You are literally the problem.
That's got to be one of the most stupid takes I've seen on pb, which is really quite a high bar. I don't detect any glee from Leon, in fact quite the opposite that universities need to raise their standards to remain relevant.
Quite so
I have one daughter at a fine university, St Andrews, and another hoping to go to one next year, possibly Trinity Dublin
I believe they will - for many reasons (some of which I am forbidden from talking about on PB) - be amongst the last to do so. I reckon universities as we know them have 5-10 years left. I have held this opinion for a couple of years, on PB (often against much scorn) but I have seen nothing to dissuade me. Indeed the terminal line seems to be getting closer
I think it is very sad. University is a wonderful experience and a great idea, I just don't see how the economics works - for the vast majority - as the world moves on
Depends what "as we know them" means.
But universities as an idea and an institution have been going strong for hundreds of years. There will still be universities long after us.
I suspect Leon only really knows of uni by his experience of a three year arts degree. Uni is so much more than three lectures a week and writing essays at 4 am for a 9 am deadline. Science and engineering courses are much more involved with far more contact hours. And the courses are not really about teaching facts, it’s about ways of thinking and the ability to apply knowledge. Leon may be right and many courses might be about to start to struggle to recruit because students no longer regard the degree as value. But that argument was made when fees were imposed and hiked. A degree isn’t just the academic education.
But if Leon is right and then AI is about to destroy most all white collar jobs then were on the verge of a mssive change in the world.
And a robot tax funded by a UBI becomes inevitable
I think you mean UBI funded by a robot tax surely?
The secretive US factory that lays bare the contradiction in Trump's America First plan
It is, in my view, the most important factory in the world, and it's being built by a company you've never heard of: TSMC, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. It makes 90% of the world's advanced semiconductors.
I don't really like being treated like an idiot. I am sure huge numbers of people know who TSMC are these days.
Well it tells us faisal islam is a fuckwit, pretty sure most here at least know who tsmc are plus anyone involved in any it role and theres a few of us, or anyone that reads the register, slashdot or any number of similar blogs
If you even vaguely follow the news you will have heard China, Taiwan, China want Taiwan back, TSMC....this is literally how every report on China / Taiwan goes.
I think people would be more surprised at say finding out that something like 90% of the worlds (push)bikes are made in Taiwan in two factories that can see one another.
"Estimates suggest 52% of Philadelphia adults are functionally illiterate, with 67% reading at a 6th-8th grade level. About 40% struggle with tasks like job applications. Data comes from sources like Achieve Now and a 2020 NCES report, though recent 2025 figures are scarce. Poverty and education access likely drive these rates, but exact causes need more research."
A large American city where more than half of adults are illiterate. No wonder China is taking over
It's getting worse too as more people consume their media in video or audio format negating the everyday need to read the news or sports pages.
Western society is declining and there are parts of America where that decline feels terminal. Education standards in the US are a joke and even at the very top in the world's highest ranked universities there is now in inexorable decline in standards with more time being spent on nonsense and less on top level research. China is stealing a huge march on the US (and the west) by having a relentless results focussed approach. It's working.
Yep
Also, everyone is now just cheating in their essays, and the essay checkers accept this, and on it goes
Quite absurd. This is one reason why - as I keep telling the site, because I am correct - the higher education system is about to implode, spectacularly. It no longer offers value to the student OR the potential employer; it is doomed
You’re complaining about education standards declining while also being gleeful about the decline of higher education institutions. Honestly, WTF? I bet China do not talk down universities or people going to university. You are literally the problem.
That's got to be one of the most stupid takes I've seen on pb, which is really quite a high bar. I don't detect any glee from Leon, in fact quite the opposite that universities need to raise their standards to remain relevant.
Quite so
I have one daughter at a fine university, St Andrews, and another hoping to go to one next year, possibly Trinity Dublin
I believe they will - for many reasons (some of which I am forbidden from talking about on PB) - be amongst the last to do so. I reckon universities as we know them have 5-10 years left. I have held this opinion for a couple of years, on PB (often against much scorn) but I have seen nothing to dissuade me. Indeed the terminal line seems to be getting closer
I think it is very sad. University is a wonderful experience and a great idea, I just don't see how the economics works - for the vast majority - as the world moves on
Depends what "as we know them" means.
But universities as an idea and an institution have been going strong for hundreds of years. There will still be universities long after us.
I suspect Leon only really knows of uni by his experience of a three year arts degree. Uni is so much more than three lectures a week and writing essays at 4 am for a 9 am deadline. Science and engineering courses are much more involved with far more contact hours. And the courses are not really about teaching facts, it’s about ways of thinking and the ability to apply knowledge. Leon may be right and many courses might be about to start to struggle to recruit because students no longer regard the degree as value. But that argument was made when fees were imposed and hiked. A degree isn’t just the academic education.
But if Leon is right and then AI is about to destroy most all white collar jobs then were on the verge of a mssive change in the world.
And a robot tax funded by a UBI becomes inevitable
I think you mean UBI funded by a robot tax surely?
Whenever anyone advocates UBI you notice they never tell you how much each adult and child will get from it because they know it will never be affordable.
The average adult on uc when you include everything gets about 12k a year
We are also often told this is not enough to live on but assuming it is
Giving every adult in the country 12k a year ubi is going to cost about 600 billion on top of all the nhs spending etc and with a lot lower tax take as few people will be working
Well if AI eliminates half the permanent jobs and makes much of the population unemployed apart from occasional contract work, a UBI is inevitable.
No government could be elected without backing one
So as I said, and by the way not saying you are wrong that something wont need to happen, give us figures for ubi and explain how you will fund them. UBI is a fine idea on paper it just falls down when you expect people to be able to live on nothing but UBI
"Estimates suggest 52% of Philadelphia adults are functionally illiterate, with 67% reading at a 6th-8th grade level. About 40% struggle with tasks like job applications. Data comes from sources like Achieve Now and a 2020 NCES report, though recent 2025 figures are scarce. Poverty and education access likely drive these rates, but exact causes need more research."
A large American city where more than half of adults are illiterate. No wonder China is taking over
It's getting worse too as more people consume their media in video or audio format negating the everyday need to read the news or sports pages.
Western society is declining and there are parts of America where that decline feels terminal. Education standards in the US are a joke and even at the very top in the world's highest ranked universities there is now in inexorable decline in standards with more time being spent on nonsense and less on top level research. China is stealing a huge march on the US (and the west) by having a relentless results focussed approach. It's working.
Yep
Also, everyone is now just cheating in their essays, and the essay checkers accept this, and on it goes
Quite absurd. This is one reason why - as I keep telling the site, because I am correct - the higher education system is about to implode, spectacularly. It no longer offers value to the student OR the potential employer; it is doomed
You’re complaining about education standards declining while also being gleeful about the decline of higher education institutions. Honestly, WTF? I bet China do not talk down universities or people going to university. You are literally the problem.
That's got to be one of the most stupid takes I've seen on pb, which is really quite a high bar. I don't detect any glee from Leon, in fact quite the opposite that universities need to raise their standards to remain relevant.
Quite so
I have one daughter at a fine university, St Andrews, and another hoping to go to one next year, possibly Trinity Dublin
I believe they will - for many reasons (some of which I am forbidden from talking about on PB) - be amongst the last to do so. I reckon universities as we know them have 5-10 years left. I have held this opinion for a couple of years, on PB (often against much scorn) but I have seen nothing to dissuade me. Indeed the terminal line seems to be getting closer
I think it is very sad. University is a wonderful experience and a great idea, I just don't see how the economics works - for the vast majority - as the world moves on
Depends what "as we know them" means.
But universities as an idea and an institution have been going strong for hundreds of years. There will still be universities long after us.
I suspect Leon only really knows of uni by his experience of a three year arts degree. Uni is so much more than three lectures a week and writing essays at 4 am for a 9 am deadline. Science and engineering courses are much more involved with far more contact hours. And the courses are not really about teaching facts, it’s about ways of thinking and the ability to apply knowledge. Leon may be right and many courses might be about to start to struggle to recruit because students no longer regard the degree as value. But that argument was made when fees were imposed and hiked. A degree isn’t just the academic education.
But if Leon is right and then AI is about to destroy most all white collar jobs then were on the verge of a mssive change in the world.
And a robot tax funded by a UBI becomes inevitable
I think you mean UBI funded by a robot tax surely?
Whenever anyone advocates UBI you notice they never tell you how much each adult and child will get from it because they know it will never be affordable.
The average adult on uc when you include everything gets about 12k a year
We are also often told this is not enough to live on but assuming it is
Giving every adult in the country 12k a year ubi is going to cost about 600 billion on top of all the nhs spending etc and with a lot lower tax take as few people will be working
Well if AI eliminates half the permanent jobs and makes much of the population unemployed apart from occasional contract work, a UBI is inevitable.
No government could be elected without backing one
So as I said, and by the way not saying you are wrong that something wont need to happen, give us figures for ubi and explain how you will fund them. UBI is a fine idea on paper it just falls down when you expect people to be able to live on nothing but UBI
By a tax on all companies that use robots and artificial intelligence but only if that artificial intelligence leads to mass unemployment
The secretive US factory that lays bare the contradiction in Trump's America First plan
It is, in my view, the most important factory in the world, and it's being built by a company you've never heard of: TSMC, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. It makes 90% of the world's advanced semiconductors.
I don't really like being treated like an idiot. I am sure huge numbers of people know who TSMC are these days.
Well it tells us faisal islam is a fuckwit, pretty sure most here at least know who tsmc are plus anyone involved in any it role and theres a few of us, or anyone that reads the register, slashdot or any number of similar blogs
If you even vaguely follow the news you will have heard China, Taiwan, China want Taiwan back, TSMC....this is literally how every report on China / Taiwan goes.
I think people would be more surprised at say finding out that something like 90% of the worlds (push)bikes are made in Taiwan in two factories that can see one another.
I actually didn't know that about the push bikes so interesting, will reference next time a lycra arsehole goes on about how green they are when they had to likely import their pedestrian killing machine from half way round the world
The secretive US factory that lays bare the contradiction in Trump's America First plan
It is, in my view, the most important factory in the world, and it's being built by a company you've never heard of: TSMC, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. It makes 90% of the world's advanced semiconductors.
I don't really like being treated like an idiot. I am sure huge numbers of people know who TSMC are these days.
Well it tells us faisal islam is a fuckwit, pretty sure most here at least know who tsmc are plus anyone involved in any it role and theres a few of us, or anyone that reads the register, slashdot or any number of similar blogs
A lot/most/vast majority of the BBC News at 10 audience get very little news through the day from any other source I suspect. They might catch the odd radio news headlines before the music starts again but otherwise...
PBers may know who TSMC are but 98% of the country don't.
"Estimates suggest 52% of Philadelphia adults are functionally illiterate, with 67% reading at a 6th-8th grade level. About 40% struggle with tasks like job applications. Data comes from sources like Achieve Now and a 2020 NCES report, though recent 2025 figures are scarce. Poverty and education access likely drive these rates, but exact causes need more research."
A large American city where more than half of adults are illiterate. No wonder China is taking over
It's getting worse too as more people consume their media in video or audio format negating the everyday need to read the news or sports pages.
Western society is declining and there are parts of America where that decline feels terminal. Education standards in the US are a joke and even at the very top in the world's highest ranked universities there is now in inexorable decline in standards with more time being spent on nonsense and less on top level research. China is stealing a huge march on the US (and the west) by having a relentless results focussed approach. It's working.
Yep
Also, everyone is now just cheating in their essays, and the essay checkers accept this, and on it goes
Quite absurd. This is one reason why - as I keep telling the site, because I am correct - the higher education system is about to implode, spectacularly. It no longer offers value to the student OR the potential employer; it is doomed
You’re complaining about education standards declining while also being gleeful about the decline of higher education institutions. Honestly, WTF? I bet China do not talk down universities or people going to university. You are literally the problem.
That's got to be one of the most stupid takes I've seen on pb, which is really quite a high bar. I don't detect any glee from Leon, in fact quite the opposite that universities need to raise their standards to remain relevant.
Quite so
I have one daughter at a fine university, St Andrews, and another hoping to go to one next year, possibly Trinity Dublin
I believe they will - for many reasons (some of which I am forbidden from talking about on PB) - be amongst the last to do so. I reckon universities as we know them have 5-10 years left. I have held this opinion for a couple of years, on PB (often against much scorn) but I have seen nothing to dissuade me. Indeed the terminal line seems to be getting closer
I think it is very sad. University is a wonderful experience and a great idea, I just don't see how the economics works - for the vast majority - as the world moves on
Depends what "as we know them" means.
But universities as an idea and an institution have been going strong for hundreds of years. There will still be universities long after us.
I suspect Leon only really knows of uni by his experience of a three year arts degree. Uni is so much more than three lectures a week and writing essays at 4 am for a 9 am deadline. Science and engineering courses are much more involved with far more contact hours. And the courses are not really about teaching facts, it’s about ways of thinking and the ability to apply knowledge. Leon may be right and many courses might be about to start to struggle to recruit because students no longer regard the degree as value. But that argument was made when fees were imposed and hiked. A degree isn’t just the academic education.
But if Leon is right and then AI is about to destroy most all white collar jobs then were on the verge of a mssive change in the world.
And a robot tax funded by a UBI becomes inevitable
I think you mean UBI funded by a robot tax surely?
Whenever anyone advocates UBI you notice they never tell you how much each adult and child will get from it because they know it will never be affordable.
The average adult on uc when you include everything gets about 12k a year
We are also often told this is not enough to live on but assuming it is
Giving every adult in the country 12k a year ubi is going to cost about 600 billion on top of all the nhs spending etc and with a lot lower tax take as few people will be working
Well if AI eliminates half the permanent jobs and makes much of the population unemployed apart from occasional contract work, a UBI is inevitable.
No government could be elected without backing one
So as I said, and by the way not saying you are wrong that something wont need to happen, give us figures for ubi and explain how you will fund them. UBI is a fine idea on paper it just falls down when you expect people to be able to live on nothing but UBI
By a tax on all companies that use robots and artificial intelligence but only if that artificial intelligence leads to mass unemployment
So you slap something like 600 billion tax on these companies and they dont say well thats it moving abroad because?
The secretive US factory that lays bare the contradiction in Trump's America First plan
It is, in my view, the most important factory in the world, and it's being built by a company you've never heard of: TSMC, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. It makes 90% of the world's advanced semiconductors.
I don't really like being treated like an idiot. I am sure huge numbers of people know who TSMC are these days.
Well it tells us faisal islam is a fuckwit, pretty sure most here at least know who tsmc are plus anyone involved in any it role and theres a few of us, or anyone that reads the register, slashdot or any number of similar blogs
A lot/most/vast majority of the BBC News at 10 audience get very little news through the day from any other source I suspect. They might catch the odd radio news headlines before the music starts again but otherwise...
PBers may know who TSMC are but 98% of the country don't.
If you search TSMC on the BBC news website there 10 pages of results...they talk about them a lot.
The secretive US factory that lays bare the contradiction in Trump's America First plan
It is, in my view, the most important factory in the world, and it's being built by a company you've never heard of: TSMC, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. It makes 90% of the world's advanced semiconductors.
I don't really like being treated like an idiot. I am sure huge numbers of people know who TSMC are these days.
Well it tells us faisal islam is a fuckwit, pretty sure most here at least know who tsmc are plus anyone involved in any it role and theres a few of us, or anyone that reads the register, slashdot or any number of similar blogs
A lot/most/vast majority of the BBC News at 10 audience get very little news through the day from any other source I suspect. They might catch the odd radio news headlines before the music starts again but otherwise...
PBers may know who TSMC are but 98% of the country don't.
Pretty sure I could say TSMC to most people I know and they would know who it was, most I know aren't even in it but they use computers and know about stuff that affects them like ram chip shortages
"Estimates suggest 52% of Philadelphia adults are functionally illiterate, with 67% reading at a 6th-8th grade level. About 40% struggle with tasks like job applications. Data comes from sources like Achieve Now and a 2020 NCES report, though recent 2025 figures are scarce. Poverty and education access likely drive these rates, but exact causes need more research."
A large American city where more than half of adults are illiterate. No wonder China is taking over
It's getting worse too as more people consume their media in video or audio format negating the everyday need to read the news or sports pages.
Western society is declining and there are parts of America where that decline feels terminal. Education standards in the US are a joke and even at the very top in the world's highest ranked universities there is now in inexorable decline in standards with more time being spent on nonsense and less on top level research. China is stealing a huge march on the US (and the west) by having a relentless results focussed approach. It's working.
Yep
Also, everyone is now just cheating in their essays, and the essay checkers accept this, and on it goes
Quite absurd. This is one reason why - as I keep telling the site, because I am correct - the higher education system is about to implode, spectacularly. It no longer offers value to the student OR the potential employer; it is doomed
You’re complaining about education standards declining while also being gleeful about the decline of higher education institutions. Honestly, WTF? I bet China do not talk down universities or people going to university. You are literally the problem.
That's got to be one of the most stupid takes I've seen on pb, which is really quite a high bar. I don't detect any glee from Leon, in fact quite the opposite that universities need to raise their standards to remain relevant.
Quite so
I have one daughter at a fine university, St Andrews, and another hoping to go to one next year, possibly Trinity Dublin
I believe they will - for many reasons (some of which I am forbidden from talking about on PB) - be amongst the last to do so. I reckon universities as we know them have 5-10 years left. I have held this opinion for a couple of years, on PB (often against much scorn) but I have seen nothing to dissuade me. Indeed the terminal line seems to be getting closer
I think it is very sad. University is a wonderful experience and a great idea, I just don't see how the economics works - for the vast majority - as the world moves on
Depends what "as we know them" means.
But universities as an idea and an institution have been going strong for hundreds of years. There will still be universities long after us.
I suspect Leon only really knows of uni by his experience of a three year arts degree. Uni is so much more than three lectures a week and writing essays at 4 am for a 9 am deadline. Science and engineering courses are much more involved with far more contact hours. And the courses are not really about teaching facts, it’s about ways of thinking and the ability to apply knowledge. Leon may be right and many courses might be about to start to struggle to recruit because students no longer regard the degree as value. But that argument was made when fees were imposed and hiked. A degree isn’t just the academic education.
But if Leon is right and then AI is about to destroy most all white collar jobs then were on the verge of a mssive change in the world.
And a robot tax funded by a UBI becomes inevitable
I think you mean UBI funded by a robot tax surely?
Whenever anyone advocates UBI you notice they never tell you how much each adult and child will get from it because they know it will never be affordable.
The average adult on uc when you include everything gets about 12k a year
We are also often told this is not enough to live on but assuming it is
Giving every adult in the country 12k a year ubi is going to cost about 600 billion on top of all the nhs spending etc and with a lot lower tax take as few people will be working
Well if AI eliminates half the permanent jobs and makes much of the population unemployed apart from occasional contract work, a UBI is inevitable.
No government could be elected without backing one
So as I said, and by the way not saying you are wrong that something wont need to happen, give us figures for ubi and explain how you will fund them. UBI is a fine idea on paper it just falls down when you expect people to be able to live on nothing but UBI
By a tax on all companies that use robots and artificial intelligence but only if that artificial intelligence leads to mass unemployment
So you slap something like 600 billion tax on these companies and they dont say well thats it moving abroad because?
As in that scenario every nation would face mass unemployment from AI and have to have a UBI funded by a robot tax
I cannot overstate the extent to which the pro-Russian MAGA types in US government were fixated on [Romania's] political future. If these exit polls hold up, it’ll be a bitter defeat for them.
"Estimates suggest 52% of Philadelphia adults are functionally illiterate, with 67% reading at a 6th-8th grade level. About 40% struggle with tasks like job applications. Data comes from sources like Achieve Now and a 2020 NCES report, though recent 2025 figures are scarce. Poverty and education access likely drive these rates, but exact causes need more research."
A large American city where more than half of adults are illiterate. No wonder China is taking over
It's getting worse too as more people consume their media in video or audio format negating the everyday need to read the news or sports pages.
Western society is declining and there are parts of America where that decline feels terminal. Education standards in the US are a joke and even at the very top in the world's highest ranked universities there is now in inexorable decline in standards with more time being spent on nonsense and less on top level research. China is stealing a huge march on the US (and the west) by having a relentless results focussed approach. It's working.
Yep
Also, everyone is now just cheating in their essays, and the essay checkers accept this, and on it goes
Quite absurd. This is one reason why - as I keep telling the site, because I am correct - the higher education system is about to implode, spectacularly. It no longer offers value to the student OR the potential employer; it is doomed
You’re complaining about education standards declining while also being gleeful about the decline of higher education institutions. Honestly, WTF? I bet China do not talk down universities or people going to university. You are literally the problem.
That's got to be one of the most stupid takes I've seen on pb, which is really quite a high bar. I don't detect any glee from Leon, in fact quite the opposite that universities need to raise their standards to remain relevant.
Quite so
I have one daughter at a fine university, St Andrews, and another hoping to go to one next year, possibly Trinity Dublin
I believe they will - for many reasons (some of which I am forbidden from talking about on PB) - be amongst the last to do so. I reckon universities as we know them have 5-10 years left. I have held this opinion for a couple of years, on PB (often against much scorn) but I have seen nothing to dissuade me. Indeed the terminal line seems to be getting closer
I think it is very sad. University is a wonderful experience and a great idea, I just don't see how the economics works - for the vast majority - as the world moves on
Depends what "as we know them" means.
But universities as an idea and an institution have been going strong for hundreds of years. There will still be universities long after us.
I suspect Leon only really knows of uni by his experience of a three year arts degree. Uni is so much more than three lectures a week and writing essays at 4 am for a 9 am deadline. Science and engineering courses are much more involved with far more contact hours. And the courses are not really about teaching facts, it’s about ways of thinking and the ability to apply knowledge. Leon may be right and many courses might be about to start to struggle to recruit because students no longer regard the degree as value. But that argument was made when fees were imposed and hiked. A degree isn’t just the academic education.
But if Leon is right and then AI is about to destroy most all white collar jobs then were on the verge of a mssive change in the world.
And a robot tax funded by a UBI becomes inevitable
I think you mean UBI funded by a robot tax surely?
Whenever anyone advocates UBI you notice they never tell you how much each adult and child will get from it because they know it will never be affordable.
The average adult on uc when you include everything gets about 12k a year
We are also often told this is not enough to live on but assuming it is
Giving every adult in the country 12k a year ubi is going to cost about 600 billion on top of all the nhs spending etc and with a lot lower tax take as few people will be working
Well if AI eliminates half the permanent jobs and makes much of the population unemployed apart from occasional contract work, a UBI is inevitable.
No government could be elected without backing one
So as I said, and by the way not saying you are wrong that something wont need to happen, give us figures for ubi and explain how you will fund them. UBI is a fine idea on paper it just falls down when you expect people to be able to live on nothing but UBI
By a tax on all companies that use robots and artificial intelligence but only if that artificial intelligence leads to mass unemployment
So you slap something like 600 billion tax on these companies and they dont say well thats it moving abroad because?
As in that scenario every nation would face mass unemployment from AI and have to have a UBI funded by a robot tax
Wow I can see why you are a tory you are so naive, at least one country wont because all those companies will move there. It will be just like irelands tax joke on a larger scale
I can see it now....country with 3 million people says hmm pay ubi for those 3 million of 50k a year and we will spread it across all the companies that move here so the more that do the less you pay. We care about our people not the british people/american/canadian/french etc. Will still cost you only 150 bill total between you all whereas britian will charge you 600 billion and only pay their people 12k a year
The secretive US factory that lays bare the contradiction in Trump's America First plan
It is, in my view, the most important factory in the world, and it's being built by a company you've never heard of: TSMC, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. It makes 90% of the world's advanced semiconductors.
I don't really like being treated like an idiot. I am sure huge numbers of people know who TSMC are these days.
Well it tells us faisal islam is a fuckwit, pretty sure most here at least know who tsmc are plus anyone involved in any it role and theres a few of us, or anyone that reads the register, slashdot or any number of similar blogs
A lot/most/vast majority of the BBC News at 10 audience get very little news through the day from any other source I suspect. They might catch the odd radio news headlines before the music starts again but otherwise...
PBers may know who TSMC are but 98% of the country don't.
If you search TSMC on the BBC news website there 10 pages of results...they talk about them a lot.
In the 1990s I used to regard BBC News as being an almost god-like source of impartial and important news, and I thought that would always continue to be true in the future.
"Estimates suggest 52% of Philadelphia adults are functionally illiterate, with 67% reading at a 6th-8th grade level. About 40% struggle with tasks like job applications. Data comes from sources like Achieve Now and a 2020 NCES report, though recent 2025 figures are scarce. Poverty and education access likely drive these rates, but exact causes need more research."
A large American city where more than half of adults are illiterate. No wonder China is taking over
It's getting worse too as more people consume their media in video or audio format negating the everyday need to read the news or sports pages.
Western society is declining and there are parts of America where that decline feels terminal. Education standards in the US are a joke and even at the very top in the world's highest ranked universities there is now in inexorable decline in standards with more time being spent on nonsense and less on top level research. China is stealing a huge march on the US (and the west) by having a relentless results focussed approach. It's working.
Yep
Also, everyone is now just cheating in their essays, and the essay checkers accept this, and on it goes
Quite absurd. This is one reason why - as I keep telling the site, because I am correct - the higher education system is about to implode, spectacularly. It no longer offers value to the student OR the potential employer; it is doomed
You’re complaining about education standards declining while also being gleeful about the decline of higher education institutions. Honestly, WTF? I bet China do not talk down universities or people going to university. You are literally the problem.
That's got to be one of the most stupid takes I've seen on pb, which is really quite a high bar. I don't detect any glee from Leon, in fact quite the opposite that universities need to raise their standards to remain relevant.
Quite so
I have one daughter at a fine university, St Andrews, and another hoping to go to one next year, possibly Trinity Dublin
I believe they will - for many reasons (some of which I am forbidden from talking about on PB) - be amongst the last to do so. I reckon universities as we know them have 5-10 years left. I have held this opinion for a couple of years, on PB (often against much scorn) but I have seen nothing to dissuade me. Indeed the terminal line seems to be getting closer
I think it is very sad. University is a wonderful experience and a great idea, I just don't see how the economics works - for the vast majority - as the world moves on
Depends what "as we know them" means.
But universities as an idea and an institution have been going strong for hundreds of years. There will still be universities long after us.
I suspect Leon only really knows of uni by his experience of a three year arts degree. Uni is so much more than three lectures a week and writing essays at 4 am for a 9 am deadline. Science and engineering courses are much more involved with far more contact hours. And the courses are not really about teaching facts, it’s about ways of thinking and the ability to apply knowledge. Leon may be right and many courses might be about to start to struggle to recruit because students no longer regard the degree as value. But that argument was made when fees were imposed and hiked. A degree isn’t just the academic education.
But if Leon is right and then AI is about to destroy most all white collar jobs then were on the verge of a mssive change in the world.
And a robot tax funded by a UBI becomes inevitable
I think you mean UBI funded by a robot tax surely?
Whenever anyone advocates UBI you notice they never tell you how much each adult and child will get from it because they know it will never be affordable.
The average adult on uc when you include everything gets about 12k a year
We are also often told this is not enough to live on but assuming it is
Giving every adult in the country 12k a year ubi is going to cost about 600 billion on top of all the nhs spending etc and with a lot lower tax take as few people will be working
You wouldn't give everyone £12k though, that's what you don't seem to understand. That's a gross figure based on nobody earning a penny but it replaces the tax allowance and forms a consistent basis so that is tapered away without draconian cliff-edges that prevent work.
"Estimates suggest 52% of Philadelphia adults are functionally illiterate, with 67% reading at a 6th-8th grade level. About 40% struggle with tasks like job applications. Data comes from sources like Achieve Now and a 2020 NCES report, though recent 2025 figures are scarce. Poverty and education access likely drive these rates, but exact causes need more research."
A large American city where more than half of adults are illiterate. No wonder China is taking over
It's getting worse too as more people consume their media in video or audio format negating the everyday need to read the news or sports pages.
Western society is declining and there are parts of America where that decline feels terminal. Education standards in the US are a joke and even at the very top in the world's highest ranked universities there is now in inexorable decline in standards with more time being spent on nonsense and less on top level research. China is stealing a huge march on the US (and the west) by having a relentless results focussed approach. It's working.
Yep
Also, everyone is now just cheating in their essays, and the essay checkers accept this, and on it goes
Quite absurd. This is one reason why - as I keep telling the site, because I am correct - the higher education system is about to implode, spectacularly. It no longer offers value to the student OR the potential employer; it is doomed
You’re complaining about education standards declining while also being gleeful about the decline of higher education institutions. Honestly, WTF? I bet China do not talk down universities or people going to university. You are literally the problem.
That's got to be one of the most stupid takes I've seen on pb, which is really quite a high bar. I don't detect any glee from Leon, in fact quite the opposite that universities need to raise their standards to remain relevant.
Quite so
I have one daughter at a fine university, St Andrews, and another hoping to go to one next year, possibly Trinity Dublin
I believe they will - for many reasons (some of which I am forbidden from talking about on PB) - be amongst the last to do so. I reckon universities as we know them have 5-10 years left. I have held this opinion for a couple of years, on PB (often against much scorn) but I have seen nothing to dissuade me. Indeed the terminal line seems to be getting closer
I think it is very sad. University is a wonderful experience and a great idea, I just don't see how the economics works - for the vast majority - as the world moves on
Depends what "as we know them" means.
But universities as an idea and an institution have been going strong for hundreds of years. There will still be universities long after us.
I suspect Leon only really knows of uni by his experience of a three year arts degree. Uni is so much more than three lectures a week and writing essays at 4 am for a 9 am deadline. Science and engineering courses are much more involved with far more contact hours. And the courses are not really about teaching facts, it’s about ways of thinking and the ability to apply knowledge. Leon may be right and many courses might be about to start to struggle to recruit because students no longer regard the degree as value. But that argument was made when fees were imposed and hiked. A degree isn’t just the academic education.
But if Leon is right and then AI is about to destroy most all white collar jobs then were on the verge of a mssive change in the world.
And a robot tax funded by a UBI becomes inevitable
I think you mean UBI funded by a robot tax surely?
Whenever anyone advocates UBI you notice they never tell you how much each adult and child will get from it because they know it will never be affordable.
The average adult on uc when you include everything gets about 12k a year
We are also often told this is not enough to live on but assuming it is
Giving every adult in the country 12k a year ubi is going to cost about 600 billion on top of all the nhs spending etc and with a lot lower tax take as few people will be working
Well if AI eliminates half the permanent jobs and makes much of the population unemployed apart from occasional contract work, a UBI is inevitable.
No government could be elected without backing one
So as I said, and by the way not saying you are wrong that something wont need to happen, give us figures for ubi and explain how you will fund them. UBI is a fine idea on paper it just falls down when you expect people to be able to live on nothing but UBI
By a tax on all companies that use robots and artificial intelligence but only if that artificial intelligence leads to mass unemployment
So you slap something like 600 billion tax on these companies and they dont say well thats it moving abroad because?
As in that scenario every nation would face mass unemployment from AI and have to have a UBI funded by a robot tax
Wow I can see why you are a tory you are so naive, at least one country wont because all those companies will move there. It will be just like irelands tax joke on a larger scale
If even that country has mass unemployment caused by AI no government would be re elected there without a UBI
"Estimates suggest 52% of Philadelphia adults are functionally illiterate, with 67% reading at a 6th-8th grade level. About 40% struggle with tasks like job applications. Data comes from sources like Achieve Now and a 2020 NCES report, though recent 2025 figures are scarce. Poverty and education access likely drive these rates, but exact causes need more research."
A large American city where more than half of adults are illiterate. No wonder China is taking over
It's getting worse too as more people consume their media in video or audio format negating the everyday need to read the news or sports pages.
Western society is declining and there are parts of America where that decline feels terminal. Education standards in the US are a joke and even at the very top in the world's highest ranked universities there is now in inexorable decline in standards with more time being spent on nonsense and less on top level research. China is stealing a huge march on the US (and the west) by having a relentless results focussed approach. It's working.
Yep
Also, everyone is now just cheating in their essays, and the essay checkers accept this, and on it goes
Quite absurd. This is one reason why - as I keep telling the site, because I am correct - the higher education system is about to implode, spectacularly. It no longer offers value to the student OR the potential employer; it is doomed
You’re complaining about education standards declining while also being gleeful about the decline of higher education institutions. Honestly, WTF? I bet China do not talk down universities or people going to university. You are literally the problem.
That's got to be one of the most stupid takes I've seen on pb, which is really quite a high bar. I don't detect any glee from Leon, in fact quite the opposite that universities need to raise their standards to remain relevant.
Quite so
I have one daughter at a fine university, St Andrews, and another hoping to go to one next year, possibly Trinity Dublin
I believe they will - for many reasons (some of which I am forbidden from talking about on PB) - be amongst the last to do so. I reckon universities as we know them have 5-10 years left. I have held this opinion for a couple of years, on PB (often against much scorn) but I have seen nothing to dissuade me. Indeed the terminal line seems to be getting closer
I think it is very sad. University is a wonderful experience and a great idea, I just don't see how the economics works - for the vast majority - as the world moves on
Depends what "as we know them" means.
But universities as an idea and an institution have been going strong for hundreds of years. There will still be universities long after us.
I suspect Leon only really knows of uni by his experience of a three year arts degree. Uni is so much more than three lectures a week and writing essays at 4 am for a 9 am deadline. Science and engineering courses are much more involved with far more contact hours. And the courses are not really about teaching facts, it’s about ways of thinking and the ability to apply knowledge. Leon may be right and many courses might be about to start to struggle to recruit because students no longer regard the degree as value. But that argument was made when fees were imposed and hiked. A degree isn’t just the academic education.
But if Leon is right and then AI is about to destroy most all white collar jobs then were on the verge of a mssive change in the world.
And a robot tax funded by a UBI becomes inevitable
I think you mean UBI funded by a robot tax surely?
Whenever anyone advocates UBI you notice they never tell you how much each adult and child will get from it because they know it will never be affordable.
The average adult on uc when you include everything gets about 12k a year
We are also often told this is not enough to live on but assuming it is
Giving every adult in the country 12k a year ubi is going to cost about 600 billion on top of all the nhs spending etc and with a lot lower tax take as few people will be working
You wouldn't give everyone £12k though, that's what you don't seem to understand. That's a gross figure based on nobody earning a penny but it replaces the tax allowance and forms a consistent basis so that is tapered away without draconian cliff-edges that prevent work.
An irony of AI is that social care jobs may become very sought after.
The coincident engines are really straining as Biden announces his cancer diagnosis literally the day before explosive book is published detailing why he should not have tried to run in 2024 due to old age.
The secretive US factory that lays bare the contradiction in Trump's America First plan
It is, in my view, the most important factory in the world, and it's being built by a company you've never heard of: TSMC, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. It makes 90% of the world's advanced semiconductors.
I don't really like being treated like an idiot. I am sure huge numbers of people know who TSMC are these days.
Well it tells us faisal islam is a fuckwit, pretty sure most here at least know who tsmc are plus anyone involved in any it role and theres a few of us, or anyone that reads the register, slashdot or any number of similar blogs
A lot/most/vast majority of the BBC News at 10 audience get very little news through the day from any other source I suspect. They might catch the odd radio news headlines before the music starts again but otherwise...
PBers may know who TSMC are but 98% of the country don't.
If you search TSMC on the BBC news website there 10 pages of results...they talk about them a lot.
In the 1990s I used to regard BBC News as being an almost god-like source of impartial and important news, and I thought that would always continue to be true in the future.
The secretive US factory that lays bare the contradiction in Trump's America First plan
It is, in my view, the most important factory in the world, and it's being built by a company you've never heard of: TSMC, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. It makes 90% of the world's advanced semiconductors.
I don't really like being treated like an idiot. I am sure huge numbers of people know who TSMC are these days.
Well it tells us faisal islam is a fuckwit, pretty sure most here at least know who tsmc are plus anyone involved in any it role and theres a few of us, or anyone that reads the register, slashdot or any number of similar blogs
A lot/most/vast majority of the BBC News at 10 audience get very little news through the day from any other source I suspect. They might catch the odd radio news headlines before the music starts again but otherwise...
PBers may know who TSMC are but 98% of the country don't.
If you search TSMC on the BBC news website there 10 pages of results...they talk about them a lot.
In the 1990s I used to regard BBC News as being an almost god-like source of impartial and important news, and I thought that would always continue to be true in the future.
Can I introduce you to Newsmax?
For those viewers who think Fox News have gone all too woke liberal leftie....
Fascinating article on how Bluesky is tailing off, and slowly self-destructing
TLDR: it's become a bubble chamber of leftoids, who are angry and intolerant of opposing opinions (esp but not always rightwing opinions). This makes it hostile to a lot of newcomers, and so the newbies stop coming. Without opposing opinions to tackle, the Blueskyers either turn on each other, or tediously and pointlessly agree with each other. And they become increasingly misinformed
I reckon if you put a dozen alpha males together for a month, by the end of it one will be the boss, there will be a few caporegimes, and the rest will be running errands, and the same with a dozen more sensitive chaps. This could be what is happening at BlueSky. We are just primates after all
Definitely some of that. And also partly an unhappy evolution - for the Left - that increasingly they don't just dislike rightwing or opposing opinions, they will not tolerate them. To oppose Woke left values - which are of course self evidently true - is to be evil, wrong, malign, Nazi. This shall not do. So anyone that has such opinions gets chased off Bluesky, and the purity police will come for even minor infringements in really niche areas - they use Blocking lists, and basic and very violent abuse
What a shitshow
But as I say this is really bad for the Left. eg the Guardian has quit X with all its 600m users and now only preaches on Bluesky to 33m angry lefties and the odd lepidopterist. And if the Guardian strays an inch from the accepted orthodoxy of the day on, say, Israel or gender or ANYTHING, all it gets is screeds of hatred
How does this benefit the Guardian? It doesn't. Much better for them to be on X with vastly more readers and maybe the chance to persuade the middle ground
Then you get the weird phenomenon of wilful ignorance. Lefties who simply aren't aware of very basic facts because these facts are censored if at all awkward, on places like Bluesky
Fascinating article on how Bluesky is tailing off, and slowly self-destructing
TLDR: it's become a bubble chamber of leftoids, who are angry and intolerant of opposing opinions (esp but not always rightwing opinions). This makes it hostile to a lot of newcomers, and so the newbies stop coming. Without opposing opinions to tackle, the Blueskyers either turn on each other, or tediously and pointlessly agree with each other. And they become increasingly misinformed
I reckon if you put a dozen alpha males together for a month, by the end of it one will be the boss, there will be a few caporegimes, and the rest will be running errands, and the same with a dozen more sensitive chaps. This could be what is happening at BlueSky. We are just primates after all
Definitely some of that. And also partly an unhappy evolution - for the Left - that increasingly they don't just dislike rightwing or opposing opinions, they will not tolerate them. To oppose Woke left values - which are of course self evidently true - is to be evil, wrong, malign, Nazi. This shall not do. So anyone that has such opinions gets chased off Bluesky, and the purity police will come for even minor infringements in really niche areas - they use Blocking lists, and basic and very violent abuse
What a shitshow
But as I say this is really bad for the Left. eg the Guardian has quit X with all its 600m users and now only preaches on Bluesky to 33m angry lefties and the odd lepidopterist. And if the Guardian strays an inch from the accepted orthodoxy of the day on, say, Israel or gender or ANYTHING, all it gets is screeds of hatred
How does this benefit the Guardian? It doesn't. Much better for them to be on X with vastly more readers and maybe the chance to persuade the middle ground
Then you get the weird phenomenon of wilful ignorance. Lefties who simply aren't aware of very basic facts because these facts are censored if at all awkward, on places like Bluesky
"Estimates suggest 52% of Philadelphia adults are functionally illiterate, with 67% reading at a 6th-8th grade level. About 40% struggle with tasks like job applications. Data comes from sources like Achieve Now and a 2020 NCES report, though recent 2025 figures are scarce. Poverty and education access likely drive these rates, but exact causes need more research."
A large American city where more than half of adults are illiterate. No wonder China is taking over
It's getting worse too as more people consume their media in video or audio format negating the everyday need to read the news or sports pages.
Western society is declining and there are parts of America where that decline feels terminal. Education standards in the US are a joke and even at the very top in the world's highest ranked universities there is now in inexorable decline in standards with more time being spent on nonsense and less on top level research. China is stealing a huge march on the US (and the west) by having a relentless results focussed approach. It's working.
Yep
Also, everyone is now just cheating in their essays, and the essay checkers accept this, and on it goes
Quite absurd. This is one reason why - as I keep telling the site, because I am correct - the higher education system is about to implode, spectacularly. It no longer offers value to the student OR the potential employer; it is doomed
You’re complaining about education standards declining while also being gleeful about the decline of higher education institutions. Honestly, WTF? I bet China do not talk down universities or people going to university. You are literally the problem.
That's got to be one of the most stupid takes I've seen on pb, which is really quite a high bar. I don't detect any glee from Leon, in fact quite the opposite that universities need to raise their standards to remain relevant.
Quite so
I have one daughter at a fine university, St Andrews, and another hoping to go to one next year, possibly Trinity Dublin
I believe they will - for many reasons (some of which I am forbidden from talking about on PB) - be amongst the last to do so. I reckon universities as we know them have 5-10 years left. I have held this opinion for a couple of years, on PB (often against much scorn) but I have seen nothing to dissuade me. Indeed the terminal line seems to be getting closer
I think it is very sad. University is a wonderful experience and a great idea, I just don't see how the economics works - for the vast majority - as the world moves on
Depends what "as we know them" means.
But universities as an idea and an institution have been going strong for hundreds of years. There will still be universities long after us.
I suspect Leon only really knows of uni by his experience of a three year arts degree. Uni is so much more than three lectures a week and writing essays at 4 am for a 9 am deadline. Science and engineering courses are much more involved with far more contact hours. And the courses are not really about teaching facts, it’s about ways of thinking and the ability to apply knowledge. Leon may be right and many courses might be about to start to struggle to recruit because students no longer regard the degree as value. But that argument was made when fees were imposed and hiked. A degree isn’t just the academic education.
But if Leon is right and then AI is about to destroy most all white collar jobs then were on the verge of a mssive change in the world.
And a robot tax funded by a UBI becomes inevitable
I think you mean UBI funded by a robot tax surely?
Whenever anyone advocates UBI you notice they never tell you how much each adult and child will get from it because they know it will never be affordable.
The average adult on uc when you include everything gets about 12k a year
We are also often told this is not enough to live on but assuming it is
Giving every adult in the country 12k a year ubi is going to cost about 600 billion on top of all the nhs spending etc and with a lot lower tax take as few people will be working
In addition to cost, the fundamental flaw is politicians and lobbying from the public. The advocates of UBI say you get rid of all other benefits because this will be enough to live on....
Immediately there will be calls for extra for this and that group and within 5 years it will be all over the shop just like every other benefit, with constant calls for an uplift for a particular struggling group by taking money off a group who are doing well and it not being fair they still get their UBI despite earning lots of money.
Even the most principled politician will find it hard to resists but think of the kids.....Jordon and Paris have 4 kids, they haven't worked for 20 years, they have developed a drink and drug problem and now the kids are going hungry because they spend all their UBI on substances....what we need is another benefit to ensure the kids don't go hungry....
Fascinating article on how Bluesky is tailing off, and slowly self-destructing
TLDR: it's become a bubble chamber of leftoids, who are angry and intolerant of opposing opinions (esp but not always rightwing opinions). This makes it hostile to a lot of newcomers, and so the newbies stop coming. Without opposing opinions to tackle, the Blueskyers either turn on each other, or tediously and pointlessly agree with each other. And they become increasingly misinformed
I reckon if you put a dozen alpha males together for a month, by the end of it one will be the boss, there will be a few caporegimes, and the rest will be running errands, and the same with a dozen more sensitive chaps. This could be what is happening at BlueSky. We are just primates after all
Definitely some of that. And also partly an unhappy evolution - for the Left - that increasingly they don't just dislike rightwing or opposing opinions, they will not tolerate them. To oppose Woke left values - which are of course self evidently true - is to be evil, wrong, malign, Nazi. This shall not do. So anyone that has such opinions gets chased off Bluesky, and the purity police will come for even minor infringements in really niche areas - they use Blocking lists, and basic and very violent abuse
What a shitshow
But as I say this is really bad for the Left. eg the Guardian has quit X with all its 600m users and now only preaches on Bluesky to 33m angry lefties and the odd lepidopterist. And if the Guardian strays an inch from the accepted orthodoxy of the day on, say, Israel or gender or ANYTHING, all it gets is screeds of hatred
How does this benefit the Guardian? It doesn't. Much better for them to be on X with vastly more readers and maybe the chance to persuade the middle ground
Then you get the weird phenomenon of wilful ignorance. Lefties who simply aren't aware of very basic facts because these facts are censored if at all awkward, on places like Bluesky
UBI is the best idea anyone's come up with so far for turning ordinary people into total zombies imo.
We have sort of done a mini experiment with UBI during COVID with furlough scheme.
There are definitely some who took that free money and spun the breathing room / free time into a new business mention, upskilling etc, but overall the reports are people got fat and lazy pretty quickly, increased drinking, etc, particularly after that initial summer when people got bored of making banana bread and jiggling to Joe Wicks.
The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, could be forced to spend more than £5bn and employ 92,000 extra workers across the public sector if declines in productivity continue until 2030, according to analysis of official figures.
The secretive US factory that lays bare the contradiction in Trump's America First plan
It is, in my view, the most important factory in the world, and it's being built by a company you've never heard of: TSMC, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. It makes 90% of the world's advanced semiconductors.
I don't really like being treated like an idiot. I am sure huge numbers of people know who TSMC are these days.
Well it tells us faisal islam is a fuckwit, pretty sure most here at least know who tsmc are plus anyone involved in any it role and theres a few of us, or anyone that reads the register, slashdot or any number of similar blogs
A lot/most/vast majority of the BBC News at 10 audience get very little news through the day from any other source I suspect. They might catch the odd radio news headlines before the music starts again but otherwise...
PBers may know who TSMC are but 98% of the country don't.
If you search TSMC on the BBC news website there 10 pages of results...they talk about them a lot.
In the 1990s I used to regard BBC News as being an almost god-like source of impartial and important news, and I thought that would always continue to be true in the future.
Then came Remembrance Sunday 2019 when the BBC replaced footage of Boris. Johnson placing his wreath upside down with footage of Boris Johnson (as Mayor) in 2016 laying his wreath correctly. Why you ask? Because in the interests of BBC impartially rules they didn't want to show Johnson making a gaff which might be seen to present advantage to his political opponents.
The secretive US factory that lays bare the contradiction in Trump's America First plan
It is, in my view, the most important factory in the world, and it's being built by a company you've never heard of: TSMC, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. It makes 90% of the world's advanced semiconductors.
I don't really like being treated like an idiot. I am sure huge numbers of people know who TSMC are these days.
Well it tells us faisal islam is a fuckwit, pretty sure most here at least know who tsmc are plus anyone involved in any it role and theres a few of us, or anyone that reads the register, slashdot or any number of similar blogs
A lot/most/vast majority of the BBC News at 10 audience get very little news through the day from any other source I suspect. They might catch the odd radio news headlines before the music starts again but otherwise...
PBers may know who TSMC are but 98% of the country don't.
If you search TSMC on the BBC news website there 10 pages of results...they talk about them a lot.
In the 1990s I used to regard BBC News as being an almost god-like source of impartial and important news, and I thought that would always continue to be true in the future.
Then came Remembrance Sunday 2019 when the BBC replaced footage of Boris. Johnson placing his wreath upside down with footage of Boris Johnson (as Mayor) in 2016 laying his wreath correctly. Why you ask? Because in the interests of BBC impartially rules they didn't want to show Johnson making a gaff which might be seen to present advantage to his political opponents.
The Lammy taxi driver saga can't be true. It just can't. It's too ridiculous. There's no way the officially number two in the UK government could have been put/left in such a situation.
One possibility is not wishing to seem hypocritical after the court case against Prince Harry.
Another is perhaps a feeling on the left in particular that as a man of the people, we do not need protection from an angry mob.
What is SOP for ministers holidaying abroad? Prime Ministers and Northern Ireland Secretaries have long been special cases. Do we normally provide other ministers on holiday with government cars and protection officers?
I don't read blogs that cover TSMC and similar but have heard of it repeatedly on current events vids on YouTube (Good Times Bad Times being the one that springs to mind). I agree with the consensus it's weird to assume people have never heard of it.
"What really should worry the Tories is that the public think the next election is going to be a Labour v Reform battle, the Tories are an irrelevance in today’s politics."
I would not write the Conservatives off just yet, they have a bit of history when it comes to reinventing themselves after an election defeat..
"What really should worry the Tories is that the public think the next election is going to be a Labour v Reform battle, the Tories are an irrelevance in today’s politics."
I would not write the Conservatives off just yet, they have a bit of history when it comes to reinventing themselves after an election defeat..
The Conservatives have the potential to reinvent themselves.
To do so will take more than Kemi occasionally telling people the party is reinvented.
"What really should worry the Tories is that the public think the next election is going to be a Labour v Reform battle, the Tories are an irrelevance in today’s politics."
I would not write the Conservatives off just yet, they have a bit of history when it comes to reinventing themselves after an election defeat..
- Romanian election - Beer - Wine - Cancer - areas like fish and red tape
Surely about time for another discussion of Japanese-style shower toilets?
Anyone got one / tried one? We are thinking of having one in our new house - might stave off the time when I am reduced to needing someone else wipe my arse ;-)
Get the upmarket one with variable positions and pressure. Not every a*se is the same ..
Dating app users are more likely to be interested in a Reform voter than a Conservative, new research suggests.
Voters were unlikely to swipe right, or like, a profile of someone from the other side of the political spectrum – meaning that centre-right voters are more likely to pick a Reform supporter than someone who supports a leftwing party, analysis from the University of Southampton and Harvard University found.
Overall, Labour, Green and Lib Dem voters had a better chance of landing a match than Reform and Conservative voters, because people who use dating apps tend to be younger and therefore more socially liberal.
"Estimates suggest 52% of Philadelphia adults are functionally illiterate, with 67% reading at a 6th-8th grade level. About 40% struggle with tasks like job applications. Data comes from sources like Achieve Now and a 2020 NCES report, though recent 2025 figures are scarce. Poverty and education access likely drive these rates, but exact causes need more research."
A large American city where more than half of adults are illiterate. No wonder China is taking over
It's getting worse too as more people consume their media in video or audio format negating the everyday need to read the news or sports pages.
Western society is declining and there are parts of America where that decline feels terminal. Education standards in the US are a joke and even at the very top in the world's highest ranked universities there is now in inexorable decline in standards with more time being spent on nonsense and less on top level research. China is stealing a huge march on the US (and the west) by having a relentless results focussed approach. It's working.
Yep
Also, everyone is now just cheating in their essays, and the essay checkers accept this, and on it goes
Quite absurd. This is one reason why - as I keep telling the site, because I am correct - the higher education system is about to implode, spectacularly. It no longer offers value to the student OR the potential employer; it is doomed
You’re complaining about education standards declining while also being gleeful about the decline of higher education institutions. Honestly, WTF? I bet China do not talk down universities or people going to university. You are literally the problem.
That's got to be one of the most stupid takes I've seen on pb, which is really quite a high bar. I don't detect any glee from Leon, in fact quite the opposite that universities need to raise their standards to remain relevant.
Quite so
I have one daughter at a fine university, St Andrews, and another hoping to go to one next year, possibly Trinity Dublin
I believe they will - for many reasons (some of which I am forbidden from talking about on PB) - be amongst the last to do so. I reckon universities as we know them have 5-10 years left. I have held this opinion for a couple of years, on PB (often against much scorn) but I have seen nothing to dissuade me. Indeed the terminal line seems to be getting closer
I think it is very sad. University is a wonderful experience and a great idea, I just don't see how the economics works - for the vast majority - as the world moves on
Depends what "as we know them" means.
But universities as an idea and an institution have been going strong for hundreds of years. There will still be universities long after us.
I suspect Leon only really knows of uni by his experience of a three year arts degree. Uni is so much more than three lectures a week and writing essays at 4 am for a 9 am deadline. Science and engineering courses are much more involved with far more contact hours. And the courses are not really about teaching facts, it’s about ways of thinking and the ability to apply knowledge. Leon may be right and many courses might be about to start to struggle to recruit because students no longer regard the degree as value. But that argument was made when fees were imposed and hiked. A degree isn’t just the academic education.
But if Leon is right and then AI is about to destroy most all white collar jobs then were on the verge of a mssive change in the world.
And a robot tax funded by a UBI becomes inevitable
I think you mean UBI funded by a robot tax surely?
Whenever anyone advocates UBI you notice they never tell you how much each adult and child will get from it because they know it will never be affordable.
The average adult on uc when you include everything gets about 12k a year
We are also often told this is not enough to live on but assuming it is
Giving every adult in the country 12k a year ubi is going to cost about 600 billion on top of all the nhs spending etc and with a lot lower tax take as few people will be working
You wouldn't give everyone £12k though, that's what you don't seem to understand. That's a gross figure based on nobody earning a penny but it replaces the tax allowance and forms a consistent basis so that is tapered away without draconian cliff-edges that prevent work.
Again, you're confusing a minimum income guarantee with universal basic income. @Pagan2 is correct, though misses that firms won't find it necessary to pay people as much as they did previously, with the first £12k covered by the state, so there is no net impact on firms.
The whole point of UBI is it's unconditional. You'd get it whatever your other income or circumstances.
I don't read blogs that cover TSMC and similar but have heard of it repeatedly on current events vids on YouTube (Good Times Bad Times being the one that springs to mind). I agree with the consensus it's weird to assume people have never heard of it.
The modern world is immensely complex, and we cannot know about everything, even in outline form. I obviously know about TSMC and its competitors, and probably could give a fairly good outline of what photolithography is, even though I've never worked directly in that area. But if you were to ask me about modern drugs and the companies that make them: I could probably name a few (GSK springs immediately to mind), but I know essentially f-all about the industry, despite its importance.
I fear we tend to think people who don't know what we know as ignorant, whilst ignoring the massive deserts of ignorance that exist in our own minds.
Incidentally, FU in the comment quotes: "and it's being built by a company you've never heard of: TSMC,", whereas the current version says: "and it's being built by a company you may have not have heard of:"
Has it been changed? One of my pet peeves in journalism is articles being changed without mention. I generally rate organisations that say when articles have been changed higher than those who try to hide changes...
- Romanian election - Beer - Wine - Cancer - areas like fish and red tape
Surely about time for another discussion of Japanese-style shower toilets?
Anyone got one / tried one? We are thinking of having one in our new house - might stave off the time when I am reduced to needing someone else wipe my arse ;-)
Get the upmarket one with variable positions and pressure. Not every a*se is the same ..
Since you're starting from scratch, I'd recommend having a look at a shataff, or have one of those as well, which is also known as a hand shower (or a "shitoff" by plumbers, colloquially), and about 99.98% less complicated than a robo-toilet, and perhaps 90% less expensive.
In much of the world loo paper is considered unhygienic. @Leon may know have experience of more variety of shataffs, or his hotels may all have pandered to Western pretentions.
Installing these at home is on my list, when I get back to thinking about house.
However, this is perhaps the one bathroom device about which I have yet to ask accessibility questions. I think I'll ask Buildhub . I don't wee why they would be less accessible than loo roll.
"Estimates suggest 52% of Philadelphia adults are functionally illiterate, with 67% reading at a 6th-8th grade level. About 40% struggle with tasks like job applications. Data comes from sources like Achieve Now and a 2020 NCES report, though recent 2025 figures are scarce. Poverty and education access likely drive these rates, but exact causes need more research."
A large American city where more than half of adults are illiterate. No wonder China is taking over
It's getting worse too as more people consume their media in video or audio format negating the everyday need to read the news or sports pages.
Western society is declining and there are parts of America where that decline feels terminal. Education standards in the US are a joke and even at the very top in the world's highest ranked universities there is now in inexorable decline in standards with more time being spent on nonsense and less on top level research. China is stealing a huge march on the US (and the west) by having a relentless results focussed approach. It's working.
Yep
Also, everyone is now just cheating in their essays, and the essay checkers accept this, and on it goes
Quite absurd. This is one reason why - as I keep telling the site, because I am correct - the higher education system is about to implode, spectacularly. It no longer offers value to the student OR the potential employer; it is doomed
You’re complaining about education standards declining while also being gleeful about the decline of higher education institutions. Honestly, WTF? I bet China do not talk down universities or people going to university. You are literally the problem.
That's got to be one of the most stupid takes I've seen on pb, which is really quite a high bar. I don't detect any glee from Leon, in fact quite the opposite that universities need to raise their standards to remain relevant.
Quite so
I have one daughter at a fine university, St Andrews, and another hoping to go to one next year, possibly Trinity Dublin
I believe they will - for many reasons (some of which I am forbidden from talking about on PB) - be amongst the last to do so. I reckon universities as we know them have 5-10 years left. I have held this opinion for a couple of years, on PB (often against much scorn) but I have seen nothing to dissuade me. Indeed the terminal line seems to be getting closer
I think it is very sad. University is a wonderful experience and a great idea, I just don't see how the economics works - for the vast majority - as the world moves on
Depends what "as we know them" means.
But universities as an idea and an institution have been going strong for hundreds of years. There will still be universities long after us.
I suspect Leon only really knows of uni by his experience of a three year arts degree. Uni is so much more than three lectures a week and writing essays at 4 am for a 9 am deadline. Science and engineering courses are much more involved with far more contact hours. And the courses are not really about teaching facts, it’s about ways of thinking and the ability to apply knowledge. Leon may be right and many courses might be about to start to struggle to recruit because students no longer regard the degree as value. But that argument was made when fees were imposed and hiked. A degree isn’t just the academic education.
But if Leon is right and then AI is about to destroy most all white collar jobs then were on the verge of a mssive change in the world.
And a robot tax funded by a UBI becomes inevitable
I think you mean UBI funded by a robot tax surely?
Whenever anyone advocates UBI you notice they never tell you how much each adult and child will get from it because they know it will never be affordable.
The average adult on uc when you include everything gets about 12k a year
We are also often told this is not enough to live on but assuming it is
Giving every adult in the country 12k a year ubi is going to cost about 600 billion on top of all the nhs spending etc and with a lot lower tax take as few people will be working
You wouldn't give everyone £12k though, that's what you don't seem to understand. That's a gross figure based on nobody earning a penny but it replaces the tax allowance and forms a consistent basis so that is tapered away without draconian cliff-edges that prevent work.
Again, you're confusing a minimum income guarantee with universal basic income. @Pagan2 is correct, though misses that firms won't find it necessary to pay people as much as they did previously, with the first £12k covered by the state, so there is no net impact on firms.
The whole point of UBI is it's unconditional. You'd get it whatever your other income or circumstances.
Not net you wouldn't.
It's unconditional but in a way that replaces the tax free allowance. What Friedman called the Negative Income Tax and it would be very feasible to operate with real time reporting.
For someone who is working they wouldn't get the full £12k, or if they earn enough any of it, as it is unconditional but tapered away via tax. As opposed to benefits today getting tapered away after tax.
Just it elements the cliff edges and 80%+ tax rates and smooths out the tax system.
Dating app users are more likely to be interested in a Reform voter than a Conservative, new research suggests.
Voters were unlikely to swipe right, or like, a profile of someone from the other side of the political spectrum – meaning that centre-right voters are more likely to pick a Reform supporter than someone who supports a leftwing party, analysis from the University of Southampton and Harvard University found.
Overall, Labour, Green and Lib Dem voters had a better chance of landing a match than Reform and Conservative voters, because people who use dating apps tend to be younger and therefore more socially liberal.
The sensible approach is clearly to avoid anyone who mentions their political leanings or affiliations in a dating profile.
The secretive US factory that lays bare the contradiction in Trump's America First plan
It is, in my view, the most important factory in the world, and it's being built by a company you've never heard of: TSMC, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. It makes 90% of the world's advanced semiconductors.
I don't really like being treated like an idiot. I am sure huge numbers of people know who TSMC are these days.
Well it tells us faisal islam is a fuckwit, pretty sure most here at least know who tsmc are plus anyone involved in any it role and theres a few of us, or anyone that reads the register, slashdot or any number of similar blogs
We’re not his target audience.
Plus it’s not easy to make a story on fab construction interesting to the general public…
More Tory frothing about the EU on R4 this morning…
I think in the noughties, the concept of giving away the crown jewels in return for a slightly more advantageous queue when you go on your holibobs would have been a corker. And still will be with posters like Roger, who was distraught and being made to queue with 'Somalians' on a recent jaunt.
However, we now live in an impecunious age, where I think the electorate are more likely to read the receipts.
"Estimates suggest 52% of Philadelphia adults are functionally illiterate, with 67% reading at a 6th-8th grade level. About 40% struggle with tasks like job applications. Data comes from sources like Achieve Now and a 2020 NCES report, though recent 2025 figures are scarce. Poverty and education access likely drive these rates, but exact causes need more research."
A large American city where more than half of adults are illiterate. No wonder China is taking over
It's getting worse too as more people consume their media in video or audio format negating the everyday need to read the news or sports pages.
Western society is declining and there are parts of America where that decline feels terminal. Education standards in the US are a joke and even at the very top in the world's highest ranked universities there is now in inexorable decline in standards with more time being spent on nonsense and less on top level research. China is stealing a huge march on the US (and the west) by having a relentless results focussed approach. It's working.
Yep
Also, everyone is now just cheating in their essays, and the essay checkers accept this, and on it goes
Quite absurd. This is one reason why - as I keep telling the site, because I am correct - the higher education system is about to implode, spectacularly. It no longer offers value to the student OR the potential employer; it is doomed
You’re complaining about education standards declining while also being gleeful about the decline of higher education institutions. Honestly, WTF? I bet China do not talk down universities or people going to university. You are literally the problem.
That's got to be one of the most stupid takes I've seen on pb, which is really quite a high bar. I don't detect any glee from Leon, in fact quite the opposite that universities need to raise their standards to remain relevant.
Quite so
I have one daughter at a fine university, St Andrews, and another hoping to go to one next year, possibly Trinity Dublin
I believe they will - for many reasons (some of which I am forbidden from talking about on PB) - be amongst the last to do so. I reckon universities as we know them have 5-10 years left. I have held this opinion for a couple of years, on PB (often against much scorn) but I have seen nothing to dissuade me. Indeed the terminal line seems to be getting closer
I think it is very sad. University is a wonderful experience and a great idea, I just don't see how the economics works - for the vast majority - as the world moves on
Depends what "as we know them" means.
But universities as an idea and an institution have been going strong for hundreds of years. There will still be universities long after us.
I suspect Leon only really knows of uni by his experience of a three year arts degree. Uni is so much more than three lectures a week and writing essays at 4 am for a 9 am deadline. Science and engineering courses are much more involved with far more contact hours. And the courses are not really about teaching facts, it’s about ways of thinking and the ability to apply knowledge. Leon may be right and many courses might be about to start to struggle to recruit because students no longer regard the degree as value. But that argument was made when fees were imposed and hiked. A degree isn’t just the academic education.
But if Leon is right and then AI is about to destroy most all white collar jobs then were on the verge of a mssive change in the world.
And a robot tax funded by a UBI becomes inevitable
I think you mean UBI funded by a robot tax surely?
Whenever anyone advocates UBI you notice they never tell you how much each adult and child will get from it because they know it will never be affordable.
The average adult on uc when you include everything gets about 12k a year
We are also often told this is not enough to live on but assuming it is
Giving every adult in the country 12k a year ubi is going to cost about 600 billion on top of all the nhs spending etc and with a lot lower tax take as few people will be working
You wouldn't give everyone £12k though, that's what you don't seem to understand. That's a gross figure based on nobody earning a penny but it replaces the tax allowance and forms a consistent basis so that is tapered away without draconian cliff-edges that prevent work.
Again, you're confusing a minimum income guarantee with universal basic income. @Pagan2 is correct, though misses that firms won't find it necessary to pay people as much as they did previously, with the first £12k covered by the state, so there is no net impact on firms.
The whole point of UBI is it's unconditional. You'd get it whatever your other income or circumstances.
Not net you wouldn't.
It's unconditional but in a way that replaces the tax free allowance. What Friedman called the Negative Income Tax and it would be very feasible to operate with real time reporting.
For someone who is working they wouldn't get the full £12k, or if they earn enough any of it, as it is unconditional but tapered away via tax. As opposed to benefits today getting tapered away after tax.
Just it elements the cliff edges and 80%+ tax rates and smooths out the tax system.
Negative income tax and minimum income guarantees are both really interesting ideas too.
Just for clarity in the debate, please don't confuse them with what is described as an unconditional payment that does not have special allowances or any earnings taper - UBI. That's how Wikipedia, academic literature, UK Gov/Scottish Gov describe the difference too.
F1: made a minor modification to my title betting, putting some on Verstappen at 4 on Betfair. He's within a win of the title lead. The Red Bull was the fastest car in Imola. Tsunoda went from pit lane to 10th, Verstappen never looked like losing after lap 1.
AI doesn't cause mass unemployment, it just frees people up not to do menial labour that can be automated and can do other jobs instead.
As every other bit of automation for centuries has done.
It is very challenging for those individuals impacted. On a macro level it works fine in theory after a period of time.
It could be analogous to the agricultural revolution, with people cleared off the land, moved to herring fishing villages on the coast, emigrating to Canada and so on.
Otoh, other advances resulted in the 5-day week, holidays etc. The balance between leisure and work will continue to change.
"Estimates suggest 52% of Philadelphia adults are functionally illiterate, with 67% reading at a 6th-8th grade level. About 40% struggle with tasks like job applications. Data comes from sources like Achieve Now and a 2020 NCES report, though recent 2025 figures are scarce. Poverty and education access likely drive these rates, but exact causes need more research."
A large American city where more than half of adults are illiterate. No wonder China is taking over
It's getting worse too as more people consume their media in video or audio format negating the everyday need to read the news or sports pages.
Western society is declining and there are parts of America where that decline feels terminal. Education standards in the US are a joke and even at the very top in the world's highest ranked universities there is now in inexorable decline in standards with more time being spent on nonsense and less on top level research. China is stealing a huge march on the US (and the west) by having a relentless results focussed approach. It's working.
Yep
Also, everyone is now just cheating in their essays, and the essay checkers accept this, and on it goes
Quite absurd. This is one reason why - as I keep telling the site, because I am correct - the higher education system is about to implode, spectacularly. It no longer offers value to the student OR the potential employer; it is doomed
You’re complaining about education standards declining while also being gleeful about the decline of higher education institutions. Honestly, WTF? I bet China do not talk down universities or people going to university. You are literally the problem.
That's got to be one of the most stupid takes I've seen on pb, which is really quite a high bar. I don't detect any glee from Leon, in fact quite the opposite that universities need to raise their standards to remain relevant.
Quite so
I have one daughter at a fine university, St Andrews, and another hoping to go to one next year, possibly Trinity Dublin
I believe they will - for many reasons (some of which I am forbidden from talking about on PB) - be amongst the last to do so. I reckon universities as we know them have 5-10 years left. I have held this opinion for a couple of years, on PB (often against much scorn) but I have seen nothing to dissuade me. Indeed the terminal line seems to be getting closer
I think it is very sad. University is a wonderful experience and a great idea, I just don't see how the economics works - for the vast majority - as the world moves on
Depends what "as we know them" means.
But universities as an idea and an institution have been going strong for hundreds of years. There will still be universities long after us.
I suspect Leon only really knows of uni by his experience of a three year arts degree. Uni is so much more than three lectures a week and writing essays at 4 am for a 9 am deadline. Science and engineering courses are much more involved with far more contact hours. And the courses are not really about teaching facts, it’s about ways of thinking and the ability to apply knowledge. Leon may be right and many courses might be about to start to struggle to recruit because students no longer regard the degree as value. But that argument was made when fees were imposed and hiked. A degree isn’t just the academic education.
But if Leon is right and then AI is about to destroy most all white collar jobs then were on the verge of a mssive change in the world.
And a robot tax funded by a UBI becomes inevitable
I think you mean UBI funded by a robot tax surely?
Whenever anyone advocates UBI you notice they never tell you how much each adult and child will get from it because they know it will never be affordable.
The average adult on uc when you include everything gets about 12k a year
We are also often told this is not enough to live on but assuming it is
Giving every adult in the country 12k a year ubi is going to cost about 600 billion on top of all the nhs spending etc and with a lot lower tax take as few people will be working
You wouldn't give everyone £12k though, that's what you don't seem to understand. That's a gross figure based on nobody earning a penny but it replaces the tax allowance and forms a consistent basis so that is tapered away without draconian cliff-edges that prevent work.
Again, you're confusing a minimum income guarantee with universal basic income. @Pagan2 is correct, though misses that firms won't find it necessary to pay people as much as they did previously, with the first £12k covered by the state, so there is no net impact on firms.
The whole point of UBI is it's unconditional. You'd get it whatever your other income or circumstances.
Not net you wouldn't.
It's unconditional but in a way that replaces the tax free allowance. What Friedman called the Negative Income Tax and it would be very feasible to operate with real time reporting.
For someone who is working they wouldn't get the full £12k, or if they earn enough any of it, as it is unconditional but tapered away via tax. As opposed to benefits today getting tapered away after tax.
Just it elements the cliff edges and 80%+ tax rates and smooths out the tax system.
Negative income tax and minimum income guarantees are both really interesting ideas too.
Just for clarity in the debate, please don't confuse them with what is described as an unconditional payment that does not have special allowances or any earnings taper - UBI. That's how Wikipedia, academic literature, UK Gov/Scottish Gov describe the difference too.
UBI and Negative Income Tax are the same concept.
We have tax either way. The net payment getting tapered away by tax, is the same either way - and the difference between this (either name) and what we have today, is that today the taper only applies to recipients of the benefit and comes on top of tax.
UBI/Negative Income Tax merges the tax system with the benefit system so that only one solitary rate of tax applies, rather than tax and taper on top.
More Tory frothing about the EU on R4 this morning…
It’s bordering on hysterical . The Tories and Reform have decided to trash the deal before it’s been released and have got their right wing arse licking papers onside .
This betrayal narrative is pathetic and now very tedious .
The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, could be forced to spend more than £5bn and employ 92,000 extra workers across the public sector if declines in productivity continue until 2030, according to analysis of official figures.
So Lineker finally gets booted by the BBC. I hope he has the time left to reflect on how using his position at the BBC as a platform for his views was so wrong.( using his position was wrong).. (his views are his own) In the end I.3 million twitter followers was worthless. How many will be left now he's gone.
I'd really hate to be working on, say, a full time salary of £25k right now.
You'd get very little or no help from welfare but all your bills will have massively increased, as well as food, transport and housing costs, so it's very possible you're just surviving month to month and not living.
- Romanian election - Beer - Wine - Cancer - areas like fish and red tape
Surely about time for another discussion of Japanese-style shower toilets?
Anyone got one / tried one? We are thinking of having one in our new house - might stave off the time when I am reduced to needing someone else wipe my arse ;-)
Get the upmarket one with variable positions and pressure. Not every a*se is the same ..
Since you're starting from scratch, I'd recommend having a look at a shataff, or have one of those as well, which is also known as a hand shower (or a "shitoff" by plumbers, colloquially), and about 99.98% less complicated than a robo-toilet, and perhaps 90% less expensive.
In much of the world loo paper is considered unhygienic. @Leon may know have experience of more variety of shataffs, or his hotels may all have pandered to Western pretentions.
Installing these at home is on my list, when I get back to thinking about house.
However, this is perhaps the one bathroom device about which I have yet to ask accessibility questions. I think I'll ask Buildhub . I don't wee why they would be less accessible than loo roll.
Update:
There is a thread on Buildhub which which starts with a £5500 appliance,
One suggestion is to plumb it via a shower bar mixer (inexpensive), which gives you water temperature control, and a separate off switch in addition to any push button or trigger on the shower head. That idea is genius.
If it is a real shower head it can be used to clean the loo, rather than needing a duck shaped bottle of cleaning product.
There is a recommendation for one called a Vitra V-Care Essential, which has a heated seat - may not be needed in your new bungalow which iirc is passive. Apparently in a cool house ladies like the heated seat in winter. You can upgrade to a posher model - range prices are £1000-£2000. Drying fans are overrated as they are slow, it is reported.
There seems to be a wide variability in prices - I'd say you should get a branded model you like for 30-50% less if you look round.
AI doesn't cause mass unemployment, it just frees people up not to do menial labour that can be automated and can do other jobs instead.
As every other bit of automation for centuries has done.
It is very challenging for those individuals impacted. On a macro level it works fine in theory after a period of time.
It could be analogous to the agricultural revolution, with people cleared off the land, moved to herring fishing villages on the coast, emigrating to Canada and so on.
Otoh, other advances resulted in the 5-day week, holidays etc. The balance between leisure and work will continue to change.
That’s the right analogy - it’s fine if you have relevant skills on a go forward basis or the capacity and resources to develop them. If not then it’s… less fine, even pretty shitty.
Young people today. They just want to hang around the Agora, taking nonsense, sing silly songs and dance. Rather than doing something useful like arming up and stabbing some Spartans.
"Estimates suggest 52% of Philadelphia adults are functionally illiterate, with 67% reading at a 6th-8th grade level. About 40% struggle with tasks like job applications. Data comes from sources like Achieve Now and a 2020 NCES report, though recent 2025 figures are scarce. Poverty and education access likely drive these rates, but exact causes need more research."
A large American city where more than half of adults are illiterate. No wonder China is taking over
It's getting worse too as more people consume their media in video or audio format negating the everyday need to read the news or sports pages.
Western society is declining and there are parts of America where that decline feels terminal. Education standards in the US are a joke and even at the very top in the world's highest ranked universities there is now in inexorable decline in standards with more time being spent on nonsense and less on top level research. China is stealing a huge march on the US (and the west) by having a relentless results focussed approach. It's working.
Yep
Also, everyone is now just cheating in their essays, and the essay checkers accept this, and on it goes
Quite absurd. This is one reason why - as I keep telling the site, because I am correct - the higher education system is about to implode, spectacularly. It no longer offers value to the student OR the potential employer; it is doomed
You’re complaining about education standards declining while also being gleeful about the decline of higher education institutions. Honestly, WTF? I bet China do not talk down universities or people going to university. You are literally the problem.
That's got to be one of the most stupid takes I've seen on pb, which is really quite a high bar. I don't detect any glee from Leon, in fact quite the opposite that universities need to raise their standards to remain relevant.
Quite so
I have one daughter at a fine university, St Andrews, and another hoping to go to one next year, possibly Trinity Dublin
I believe they will - for many reasons (some of which I am forbidden from talking about on PB) - be amongst the last to do so. I reckon universities as we know them have 5-10 years left. I have held this opinion for a couple of years, on PB (often against much scorn) but I have seen nothing to dissuade me. Indeed the terminal line seems to be getting closer
I think it is very sad. University is a wonderful experience and a great idea, I just don't see how the economics works - for the vast majority - as the world moves on
Depends what "as we know them" means.
But universities as an idea and an institution have been going strong for hundreds of years. There will still be universities long after us.
I suspect Leon only really knows of uni by his experience of a three year arts degree. Uni is so much more than three lectures a week and writing essays at 4 am for a 9 am deadline. Science and engineering courses are much more involved with far more contact hours. And the courses are not really about teaching facts, it’s about ways of thinking and the ability to apply knowledge. Leon may be right and many courses might be about to start to struggle to recruit because students no longer regard the degree as value. But that argument was made when fees were imposed and hiked. A degree isn’t just the academic education.
But if Leon is right and then AI is about to destroy most all white collar jobs then were on the verge of a mssive change in the world.
And a robot tax funded by a UBI becomes inevitable
I think you mean UBI funded by a robot tax surely?
Whenever anyone advocates UBI you notice they never tell you how much each adult and child will get from it because they know it will never be affordable.
The average adult on uc when you include everything gets about 12k a year
We are also often told this is not enough to live on but assuming it is
Giving every adult in the country 12k a year ubi is going to cost about 600 billion on top of all the nhs spending etc and with a lot lower tax take as few people will be working
You wouldn't give everyone £12k though, that's what you don't seem to understand. That's a gross figure based on nobody earning a penny but it replaces the tax allowance and forms a consistent basis so that is tapered away without draconian cliff-edges that prevent work.
You would give everyone the same hence the universal in UBI and in the event of ai taking most peoples jobs no they won't be earning a penny most of them
Comments
It’s fish and SPS .
And then I ran out of ChatGPT credits.
I would by the way much prefer we made the change to a contributory system than have a two tier system for migrants
The average adult on uc when you include everything gets about 12k a year
We are also often told this is not enough to live on but assuming it is
Giving every adult in the country 12k a year ubi is going to cost about 600 billion on top of all the nhs spending etc and with a lot lower tax take as few people will be working
It is, in my view, the most important factory in the world, and it's being built by a company you've never heard of: TSMC, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. It makes 90% of the world's advanced semiconductors.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwywj0zgzwxo
I don't really like being treated like an idiot. I am sure huge numbers of people know who TSMC are these days.
Immediately there will be calls for extra for this and that group and within 5 years it will be all over the shop just like every other benefit, with constant calls for an uplift for a particular struggling group by taking money off a group who are doing well and it not being fair they still get their UBI despite earning lots of money.
Even the most principled politician will find it hard to resists but think of the kids.....Jordon and Paris have 4 kids, they haven't worked for 20 years, they have developed a drink and drug problem and now the kids are going hungry because they spend all their UBI on substances....what we need is another benefit to ensure the kids don't go hungry....
No government could be elected without backing one
I think people would be more surprised at say finding out that something like 90% of the worlds (push)bikes are made in Taiwan in two factories that can see one another.
PBers may know who TSMC are but 98% of the country don't.
@michaeldweiss
I cannot overstate the extent to which the pro-Russian MAGA types in US government were fixated on [Romania's] political future. If these exit polls hold up, it’ll be a bitter defeat for them.
https://x.com/michaeldweiss/status/1924170944852951251
Where you moving your company to?
As every other bit of automation for centuries has done.
Terrible that its something that is now noteworthy, post-Trump, it should be something we take for granted.
Amused that the bar chart for the result is the Ukrainian flag.
There are definitely some who took that free money and spun the breathing room / free time into a new business mention, upskilling etc, but overall the reports are people got fat and lazy pretty quickly, increased drinking, etc, particularly after that initial summer when people got bored of making banana bread and jiggling to Joe Wicks.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/may/19/uk-may-need-92000-extra-public-workers-if-fall-in-productivity-continues-to-2030
Another is perhaps a feeling on the left in particular that as a man of the people, we do not need protection from an angry mob.
What is SOP for ministers holidaying abroad? Prime Ministers and Northern Ireland Secretaries have long been special cases. Do we normally provide other ministers on holiday with government cars and protection officers?
I don't read blogs that cover TSMC and similar but have heard of it repeatedly on current events vids on YouTube (Good Times Bad Times being the one that springs to mind). I agree with the consensus it's weird to assume people have never heard of it.
https://bsky.app/profile/matthewholehouse.bsky.social/post/3lphwnse2fk2o
I would not write the Conservatives off just yet, they have a bit of history when it comes to reinventing themselves after an election defeat..
To do so will take more than Kemi occasionally telling people the party is reinvented.
Get the upmarket one with variable positions and pressure. Not every a*se is the same ..
Dating app users are more likely to be interested in a Reform voter than a Conservative, new research suggests.
Voters were unlikely to swipe right, or like, a profile of someone from the other side of the political spectrum – meaning that centre-right voters are more likely to pick a Reform supporter than someone who supports a leftwing party, analysis from the University of Southampton and Harvard University found.
Overall, Labour, Green and Lib Dem voters had a better chance of landing a match than Reform and Conservative voters, because people who use dating apps tend to be younger and therefore more socially liberal.
The whole point of UBI is it's unconditional. You'd get it whatever your other income or circumstances.
I fear we tend to think people who don't know what we know as ignorant, whilst ignoring the massive deserts of ignorance that exist in our own minds.
Incidentally, FU in the comment quotes: "and it's being built by a company you've never heard of: TSMC,", whereas the current version says: "and it's being built by a company you may have not have heard of:"
Has it been changed? One of my pet peeves in journalism is articles being changed without mention. I generally rate organisations that say when articles have been changed higher than those who try to hide changes...
In much of the world loo paper is considered unhygienic. @Leon may know have experience of more variety of shataffs, or his hotels may all have pandered to Western pretentions.
Installing these at home is on my list, when I get back to thinking about house.
However, this is perhaps the one bathroom device about which I have yet to ask accessibility questions. I think I'll ask Buildhub
It's unconditional but in a way that replaces the tax free allowance. What Friedman called the Negative Income Tax and it would be very feasible to operate with real time reporting.
For someone who is working they wouldn't get the full £12k, or if they earn enough any of it, as it is unconditional but tapered away via tax. As opposed to benefits today getting tapered away after tax.
Just it elements the cliff edges and 80%+ tax rates and smooths out the tax system.
Plus it’s not easy to make a story on fab construction interesting to the general public…
However, we now live in an impecunious age, where I think the electorate are more likely to read the receipts.
Just for clarity in the debate, please don't confuse them with what is described as an unconditional payment that does not have special allowances or any earnings taper - UBI. That's how Wikipedia, academic literature, UK Gov/Scottish Gov describe the difference too.
Otoh, other advances resulted in the 5-day week, holidays etc. The balance between leisure and work will continue to change.
We have tax either way. The net payment getting tapered away by tax, is the same either way - and the difference between this (either name) and what we have today, is that today the taper only applies to recipients of the benefit and comes on top of tax.
UBI/Negative Income Tax merges the tax system with the benefit system so that only one solitary rate of tax applies, rather than tax and taper on top.
This betrayal narrative is pathetic and now very tedious .
NEW THREAD
I hope he has the time left to reflect on how using his position at the BBC as a platform for his views was so wrong.( using his position was wrong).. (his views are his own)
In the end I.3 million twitter followers was worthless.
How many will be left now he's gone.
You'd get very little or no help from welfare but all your bills will have massively increased, as well as food, transport and housing costs, so it's very possible you're just surviving month to month and not living.
Dan Hannan?
Dan Air?
We need more context
There is a thread on Buildhub which which starts with a £5500 appliance,
https://forum.buildhub.org.uk/topic/32234-cheapish-fancyish-toilets-toto-vitra-grohe/
and ends with things like this that are £30-50 added to a normal loo.
https://www.samodrahome.com/collections/bidet-attachment/products/samodra-minimalist-bidet?variant=40198313509062
or this from Grohe for £52, which is a "wash your hair whilst in the bath" shower with a trigger on the shower head:
https://www.grohe.co.uk/en_gb/vitalio-trigger-spray-30-wall-holder-set-1-spray-26175001.html
One suggestion is to plumb it via a shower bar mixer (inexpensive), which gives you water temperature control, and a separate off switch in addition to any push button or trigger on the shower head. That idea is genius.
If it is a real shower head it can be used to clean the loo, rather than needing a duck shaped bottle of cleaning product.
There is a recommendation for one called a Vitra V-Care Essential, which has a heated seat - may not be needed in your new bungalow which iirc is passive. Apparently in a cool house ladies like the heated seat in winter. You can upgrade to a posher model - range prices are £1000-£2000. Drying fans are overrated as they are slow, it is reported.
There seems to be a wide variability in prices - I'd say you should get a branded model you like for 30-50% less if you look round.
TMI?