Why are we funding Harvard?

[@YourFunkiness]

If the government funds a Harvard study, and it turns out the scientists in the study committed massive academic fraud and falsified their study, do we as the taxpayer get a refund?

[@matthewwright57]

lol nope

[@MajorT0m]

Lots of that happened in the last three or four years.

[@EliSkylander]

Nope. We get a big pile of paper with "FRAUDULENT! DO NOT USE EXCEPT IN CASES OF NATIONAL EMERGENCY!" written on it.

[@10Sethg]

No, you get gulag comrade for not supporting the party.

[@TheSiprianus]

The fundamental reason why a government-based economy can't work is that they have very little to no accountability when they don't produce the result people want, or even worse, when they produce a bad and often destructive result for society. Easiest comparison: how the biggest and second biggest oil spills pay for their damages.

[@KevinTumlinson]

I'm adding "Contributed millions to Harvard endowment" to my resume.

[@mr.alkenly889]

*Billions

[@NMiller_]

Follow up question: if the US Government assists in paying for research, why can the product that research be monopolized by private interests?

[@grubsrealm6549]

Taxes aren't for the public good the primary function of taxes are to 1: keep the peons poor 2: make your owners richer and 3: control the peons and stop them from revolting.

[@theBear89451]

This is because patents are too long. If a patent is 20 years, then research should be for items that are over 20 years away from commercialization. If the research is 5 years from commercialization, then the patent should be 5 years.

[@jaredwilliams8621]

​@@theBear89451I always felt that any federal funding for research should reduce the patent by the percentage that the federal government contributed. If the government provided 50% of your funding, your patents are only going to be for 10 years.

[@realstatistician]

Good point. 👍

[@JennWest-Liberty]

All you need to know to understand the current congress has no constitutional power. 1. Title 2 Congress has no positive law citation (it is not a constitutional law). 2. They use the wrong enacting clause. 3. None or almost none of them served in the military. 4. Non-Commissioned officers must be 18. 18+7=25 Representatives must be a citizen of the United States and have 7 years and age of 25. 5. Commissioned officers must be 21. 21+9=30 Senators must be a citizen of the United States for 9 years and be age 30. 6. President as -Executive of the United States of America -Commander in Chief of the forces of the United States - Commissioned at 21. Military for 14 years (a citizen of the United States) 21+14=35 -President/Commander in Chief must have 14 years (in the military/Resident of the United States or have served for 14 years) citizen of the United States and must be 35 years. NONE OR ALMOST NONE OF THEM CONGRESS AND/OR PRESIDENT QUALIFY GOR THE POSITIONS/OFFICES CREATED BY THE CONSTITUTION.

[@SimplestUsername]

Side note, if we're going to pay colleges research grant money, the findings should be *FULLY accessible to the public* and not restricted to students and staff.

[@bz2376]

By and large they are accessible, use google scholar and you can find virtually unlimited research that’s not behind a paywall. But if you do find something that is, just email the researchers, more often then not they’re glad to share their work, and it’s not like universities put much effort into anti-piracy measures anyways

[@musthaf9]

Research findings are either fully accessible to the public (open access) or only accessible to paying subscribers of the publisher. Weird? Well it is

[@ericew]

5 years ago at a state school would charge 54% overhead in theory to cover things like phones and networks but also charge for every phone or network drop they turned on for the unit per month and there was no discount for having already paid the indirect costs. They literally have consulting groups come in to work on how to plump the indirect funds as well as redesigning their tuition and fees such that those fees can be covered by more federal loans. It's an insidious business and we need to pull the plug already ( in terms of tax support ).

[@DouglasFilmsLtd]

I searched, "What if John Oliver was actually funny," and landed here.

[@aperson6242]

But John Oliver is funny. And because of him, I know. That while homeschooling Can be beneficial it could use a few reforms

[@PewPewLookout]

John used to be funny. But I guess when you become a well paid shill and human megaphone for the state you dont really have to try anymore.

[@JennWest-Liberty]

All you need to know to understand the current congress has no constitutional power. 1. Title 2 Congress has no positive law citation (it is not a constitutional law). 2. They use the wrong enacting clause. 3. None or almost none of them served in the military. 4. Non-Commissioned officers must be 18. 18+7=25 Representatives must be a citizen of the United States and have 7 years and age of 25. 5. Commissioned officers must be 21. 21+9=30 Senators must be a citizen of the United States for 9 years and be age 30. 6. President as -Executive of the United States of America -Commander in Chief of the forces of the United States - Commissioned at 21. Military for 14 years (a citizen of the United States) 21+14=35 -President/Commander in Chief must have 14 years (in the military/Resident of the United States or have served for 14 years) citizen of the United States and must be 35 years. NONE OR ALMOST NONE OF THEM CONGRESS AND/OR PRESIDENT QUALIFY GOR THE POSITIONS/OFFICES CREATED BY THE CONSTITUTION.

[@10PercentForTheBigGuy]

Welcome, join us my friend. The water is warm and it's not urine.

[@tripp8833]

John Oliver is funny to neck beards / Disney adults

[@amandaarmstrong3606]

Andrew Heaton is the best -- bring back Mostly Weekly!

[@neomanrex]

Fuck that. Bring back EconPop!

[@peregrintook9227]

Mostly Weekly > EconPop (I like both btw).

[@johnwesley256]

Citizens v government Red cop v blue cop The absurd laws that we have Everything they do is great

[@doublecheckityt]

#mostlyweekly

[@nonyadamnbusiness9887]

Very simple solution. Stop giving any tax money to universities.

[@gmbproducer9617]

stop paying taxes at all!!! that's criminal and extortive

[@zorono2001]

I don’t know if the US can handle a bit more of idiocy

[@arofhoof]

"Very simple solution. Stop giving any tax money to universities." I wish we could decide where our tax dollars goes That would solve so many problems.

[@AlecMuller]

@@zorono2001 Do you think letting universities sink or float on their own merits will result in *more* idiocy than we have now?

[@skinwalker69420]

No? Public schools need pubic funding, maybe I'm just outing myself as a liberal but the problem was that a private college known to teach socialist ideas is being funded by the government instead of public colleges the average American can attend.

[@RobbieK10]

Always wonderful to see the great Andrew Heaton on ReasonTV.

[@-cheshire-cat]

Community College here, we bought a yacht. What? We need it for big foot research.

[@DavidMay-cc1xo]

If Harvard has more money than Jesus, how much taxpayer dollars is the government giving to Jesus? Wait, government. You gave my money to the wrong Jesus.

[@joeydell]

We need more of this type of content!

[@DrProgNerd]

Remember: this is money that does not exist - since we are technically bankrupt. This is money that needs to be 'printed'. Yaaaay government.

[@NineSeptims]

They don't have a choice except to keep printing. It will mean when it fails it will fail HARD but at least it's not during our administration right? lol

[@abcdef-ms9mb]

​@@NineSeptimsyep, that's why we're not in a permanent recession. They're essentially doing "double it and give it to the next person" every election cycle. Unfortunately they can't keep going like that forever, they just made the economy of the strongest global superpower into a ticking nuclear timebomb.

[@seanmuir9594]

Awesome video. TAX those endowments at least. The Universities are definitely partisan. Give them the choice to have no Federal funding or to be taxed on the endowments.

[@bananapie2198]

You actually had me laughing so hard I teared up. This is fantastic.

[@carltonbauheimer]

Excellent. More videos like this, please.

[@ThomasStYeng]

One of the best recent videos in a long time.

[@grim_magnus]

Andrew Heaton is a nation treasure.

[@tetrahedrontri]

Protect Andrew at all costs - he is a treasure

[@justingolden21]

Agree. We shouldn't be spending tax payer money on any of this crap, but ESPECIALLY endowments for ivy leagues from the pockets of average Americans, and even if you understand why people like research and think the US gov has incentives to fund said research (which it does) then at least cut the worst of the worst spending.

[@burkean]

So we are going to fund universities that don't make profits, and revoke funding if they do. I wonder if there may unintended consequences in the incentive structure.

[@harmonicarchipelgo9351]

We could either stop paying altogether or do a voucher system. As for research money.... I have no idea how to make this not terrible. But I also think there are legitimate reasons for the government to incentivize research and even pay for some of it. I guess we could start with obvious improvements like not paying for overhead, spending money on replication studies and peer reviewing, and streamlining the grant process. The problem is how to determine which research deserves funding and how much funding is the right amount. I suspect the answer is probably something like implementing standard accounting practices with itemized budgets on both the government and university side of things, but really I have no idea.

[@stevenw5013]

Love to see more videos from Heaton!

[@donleyp]

This is the funniest (and saddest) Heaton video I've seen in a long time. Thanks!

[@codymosher8453]

I love me some Heaton! Funny and informative!

[@JohnTurner313]

Because they just told us aliens might be living inside the moon. That's valuable intel. Worth it!

[@liberty-matrix]

As President Claudine Gay found out, it's difficult running a daycare center the size of Harvard University.

[@Sashowindfeather]

This has been my opinion for ages. And lets start putting the universities on the hook for these student loans. You want to get money for it, you should make sure the students graduate and if they don't get a job in X time after graduation that is enough to pay the loan off, the school covers it.

[@howtubeable]

And no student loan forgiveness. All defaulted loans should be paid by the universities.

[@zombiechaddy]

Heaton's callbacks are a work of art - always hilarious!

[@jbarnes1599]

You can tell the number of Harvard administrators by the number of thumbs down this video gets.

[@matthewsgeoffmh]

I don't know if community colleges would actually use the money any wiser.

[@GregoryTheGr8ster]

So true. Like public schools, they'd probably just hire more government employees.

[@warman137]

Idk about the community colleges near you, but the ones in Indiana use their limited funds very efficiently. Tuition assistance from every possible avenue, emphasis on trades, quality classroom tools for said trade(machines, robots, training instruments, computers, anything to help students get hands on experience in their field of study) and vetted instructors that have years of experience in their respective fields. If more money would make all of this more accessible, I could get behind that.

[@tientran7492]

We need to vote for those that don't give money to these institutions!

[@macsnafu]

I'm not that complicated a person; I see Andrew Heaton's mug, I click on the video!

[@ProjectEkerTest33]

I'm not any kind of Libertarian but I find you guys funny and you make some very good points

[@randeelaskewitz5941]

Love Andrew Heaton!

[@a_yanki]

Andrew Heaton is one of the true good things in the world.

[@josephgiglio2559]

hallelujah. Give it up brother

[@psycomutt]

I'm not for "free college" or "free healthcare" but when I see stuff like this it annoys me to no end knowing we easily could have that stuff if we stopped blowing money everywhere.

[@Br3ttM]

Academia is just not the efficient way to do practical research to achieve specific goals. Research departments of businesses are more efficient at turning money into usable data, because they care more about actually getting the results, while the academics care more about the process itself.

[@WinstonSmithGPT]

“Overhead” is what funds Wokeness and I was about to yell in comments, and then you bright them up. Awesome.

[@Idtelos]

This is very true. Particulaly in the soft sciences. Grants given for useless research with insane overhead cost.

[@thatguy4015]

This video is a work of art. Thank you.

[@CharlesVaughn-bm9gq]

Why would I have to give any money to a private university.

[@alexcholagh8330]

It's called fraudulent behavior. I find jobs that pay cash

[@non-hyphenated]

Tax money goes to a lot of private organizations, that do things like build roads, design fighter jets, perform basic research. Pretty much any job you can think of, there is a private company doing it as a government contractor... there's a company installs and maintain elevators on military bases; there a company that mows the grass in the median of interstate highways.

[@rustyshackle917]

​@@non-hyphenated "privatization" is a republican con to steal public resources/money.

[@sanniepstein4835]

@@non-hyphenated Everyone has access to public roads. Everyone does not have access to Harvard. And no, the supposed social benefit its graduates provide does not justify forcing us to fund it.

[@non-hyphenated]

@@sanniepstein4835 The money going to basic research at Harvard benefits everyone. Things like smallpox vaccine, insulin, kidney transplants, PET scans, and pacemakers were developed at Harvard. The way it works is the NIH puts out a call for proposals and then a bunch of researchers submit proposals, and the group with the most promising proposal wins the grant contract. There are a lot of smart people at Harvard, and some money going to the top researchers in their field at Harvard is better for the public than the money only competed for by faculty at State schools. This money has nothing to do with students or graduates of Harvard.

[@cozmoteckla2266]

Love Heaton!

[@dayviduh]

I’m a progressive but videos like these keep me coming back. Thanks again for another great one!

[@fecat93]

Go Cats! I'm a Northwestern alumnus, but I agree that not only does Northwestern not need/deserve the money, but they aren't good fiduciaries of the taxpayer largesse.

[@jackhowe6]

Harvard is an investment fund that hobbies at running a school.

[@MaeghanRose-84]

I ❤ Andrew Heaton

[@allyourpie4323]

Mr Gambini,that is a lucid,intelligent,well thought out objection. Overruled.

[@mztokyo7630]

Private educational institution receiving public funds. What could go wrong!!

[@TickedOffPriest]

When you get money, there will be corruption.

[@lifeunderthemic]

Modern day failed caste system!!! I love you bromandude. Thats been my motto for the last 100+posts. Good to see someone else understand this modern day failure.

[@BigEvan96]

Get Stefan Molyneux on here to do "the truth about" and have people vote on it.

[@kurtisb100]

I have a theory. Maybe, if an ivy league university wants to exist in America, maybe they need to allocate some research resources to American interests. Kinda like how everyone else needs to pay property tax?

[@dallasjohnson2137]

This video need 100 million views

[@johnwesley256]

At least 150 million, the amount of eligible voters in the US

[@j95lee]

“Overhead” should cover things like water and electricity bills. Any funding for student government, indigenous people celebration, and fountains should be denied.

[@eavyeavy2864]

Colonial be like:

[@PotatoSmasher4242]

I find a lot of Andrew Heaton's videos have an equestrian theme to them.

[@AnaIvanovic4ever]

He is a shill for Big Equine. Snuffys used to be his main sponsor

[@sanniepstein4835]

This is Reason's best work. Forget the open borders nuttiness and focus on sensible matters like this.

[@mattcollins4550]

"Swollen and engorged endowments" :-D LOL

[@The_real_Carcano]

I want Harvard to have money so the smart people can turn me into Robocop

[@erikwiseman1702]

I see Heaton, I watch the video.

[@aquaz3nk960]

HEATON IS BACK

[@SpartacusColo]

Brilliant writing.

[@victorbellew3759]

This doesn’t include tax breaks provided to the parents of the students and grants going to the universities. My son did a paper on this subject and found the rate spent by our government on tuition came to about $63 billion. That would be enough to pay for a 4 year degree at a community college for every single high school graduate in the US. Insane!

[@Tir33nts343]

Once the government started subsidizing colleges and universities tuitions. we started paying more and more on tuition, ironically

[@michaelmosley384]

Heaton is top notch

[@ja8898]

Totally on board with tax dollars not being just given away, but how are the funds going to the school? Most universities have grant divisions who compete for the money. I apply for grants through my university all the time. It's for research funding to try new projects. Sometimes the money is from a private grant, sometimes it's federal funds.

[@ja8898]

I should have kept watching before I commented. 100% yes to the overhead. My current grant has a cap on indirect costs of 15%. Federal grants have a cap around 55% for indirect. My endowment fund is earmarked so I can't use it for tuition payments for students. There's explicitly $10 million just sitting there for building renovations and by a contract with a private party I can't use it for anything else.

[@JennWest-Liberty]

All you need to know to understand the current congress has no constitutional power. 1. Title 2 Congress has no positive law citation (it is not a constitutional law). 2. They use the wrong enacting clause. 3. None or almost none of them served in the military. 4. Non-Commissioned officers must be 18. 18+7=25 Representatives must be a citizen of the United States and have 7 years and age of 25. 5. Commissioned officers must be 21. 21+9=30 Senators must be a citizen of the United States for 9 years and be age 30. 6. President as -Executive of the United States of America -Commander in Chief of the forces of the United States - Commissioned at 21. Military for 14 years (a citizen of the United States) 21+14=35 -President/Commander in Chief must have 14 years (in the military/Resident of the United States or have served for 14 years) citizen of the United States and must be 35 years. NONE OR ALMOST NONE OF THEM CONGRESS AND/OR PRESIDENT QUALIFY GOR THE POSITIONS/OFFICES CREATED BY THE CONSTITUTION.

[@thomas6502]

lol, the only way this could have been more humorous is if it were delivered as a musical... ala "Ta-em America" or "'Buy! Buy!' Birdie".

[@richdobbs6595]

It's just royalty handing out money to favorites, not for some some reason like they are supporting the Kingdom in securing it from those Anglo-Saxon peasants, but just because we have it and we can.

[@artinist]

This is unbelievable

[@sparrowsparrow7505]

So that Lisa Simpson may study there.

[@BillyReplies]

If you're reading this 10 or 15 years from now, yes, we knew we were wasting money, but we didn't do anything about it. We used to watch videos like this from our phones or home computers, but you've probably pirated a small amount of electricity from the government's private grid to momentarily charge an illegal personal device to view this outlawed content. Also, we're sorry about the rain water. It was once potable.

[@davidanalyst671]

Its a good thing Heaton told me that reference was relevant, or I was going to think otherwise.

[@SubieNinja]

there was a lot of jokes in here but "dolphins are degenerate" was NOT one of them. sure theyre cute and smart but degenerate is a very apt description

[@MajorT0m]

You wot m8?

[@nathanschubert3048]

@@MajorT0m Dolphins have been known to rape just about anything they can. They aren't the only animal to do it, but you still want to be careful around them in particular. They can also drown you.

[@GrifGrey]

dolphins need to be locked up in atlantis

[@tretolien1195]

My suspicion is that the tuition help is for things like Pell grants which are provided for any American university's poorest students even if unnecessary. Then the overhead funding *usually* doesn't go to DEI or Yachts but rather better more complicated experimental equipment than necessary.

[@Pirusiandres]

Masterpiece! ❤❤❤

[@Liberty4Ever]

I used to smoke pot with Johnny Hopkins. He and Sloan Kettering were blazin' that shit up every day.

[@pn784059]

aaaaand the first joke is a horse joke. love Heaton's humor.

[@robertduffy5805]

So they overbilled, Congress sent a strongly worded letter and moved on. If anyone complained, they would say it was such a small amount of the overall budget that fixing it would hardly dent all of the other over spending and waste. Got it.

[@user-d5t1n]

Cool. Once were done then we can stop giving money to insurance corporations as well.

[@JonVB-t8l]

I was total aware of all of this... except the blatant embezzlement. Don't know how I missed that, because it seems like it should have been headline news. Oh wait, the news only talks about "important stuff" like what wars we totally need to be involved in, and complains about how much Elon Musk's compensation package was. (which shareholders voluntarily voted on)

[@EliSkylander]

I learned more about Fidel Castro in this video than I ever did in school. Thanks for nothing, Northwestern.

[@stephenreaves3205]

wild to hear of an area where we're giving more tax money away than gyropeans

[@JasonJrake]

In unrelated news, it’s against the NAP to not create a sequel to the series that includes “Libertarian Star Trek,” and “Libertarian G.O.T.” Your comedy skits are highly underrated.

[@jeffgagne5482]

Basic research is important! It goes based on grant applications for research. That research as it crazy as it seems on face value often produces applied research and patents and new companies and new jobs. Their students also start new companies develop new tech, create new companies and new jobs. Yes, indirect costs are high but the feds could negotiate that one.

[@sanniepstein4835]

How many grants did the Wright brothers receive?

[@chadsensei-ue6jn]

Because they have the slimiest lawyers money can buy. And they teach at the law school.

[@TheDeadMan79]

Is Bigfoot like our version of the Winter Soldier? That would explain a lot like why he’s so hard to find.

[@tfjones78]

My belief is simple ... Government should provide "scholarships" to all students and ZERO funding to ANY college!!

[@spencer1980]

Federal for research is a wonderful thing (I'd argue that technology developed via federal funding should have reduced time under patent before it enters public domain, but that's complicated). Federal research grants should require an itemized invoice be submitted.

[@spencer1980]

I'd also be curious to know how much of tuition actually goes towards education (salaries, keeping the lights on, facilities maintenance, etc). That's been my opposition to the student loan forgiveness thing. The actual borrowers, many of them, need some debt relief. Because of how easy it was to get unsecured loans, the price of education just fucking skyrocketed. I'm torn, because on the one hand, I want universities to have fuck loads of cash. I'm sure some of them manage to actually do good things with it. On the other hand....they're the actual borrower of student loans. Like fuck, if their needs to be debts settled, it should be a discussion between the universities and the lenders. Just on principle, I lean more towards fuck the lenders honestly. But the situation is honestly fucked. I don't know who i hate more?

[@crstothard]

Very excellent. Greetings from NYC!

[@JP-kq4jr]

I’m pretty high rn so a horny dolphin stalking Ho Chi Minh is uh maybe the funniest thing I’ve ever fucking heard.

[@danielrizzo4927]

How Bell Labs ever managed to invent the transistor and revolutionize our lives without tax dollars? Guess we’ll never know.

[@Hoplopfheil]

More like Barely Even Weekly with Andrew Heaton.

[@Liberty4Ever]

Fun Fact - University tuition is so expensive because the federal government provides Pell grants and guaranteed student loans to "make higher education more affordable." Prior to government tuition assistance, college students would work their way through school with a part time job. In 2024, very few part time waitresses make $80,000 a year.

[@zachjones6944]

Higher education is a racket, dear friends.

[@libertariantranslator1929]

Ah! The Jesus Caucus is alive and, well...

[@Liberty4Ever]

10:00 - That bigfoot is Austin Bragg. The kinestetics are a dead giveaway.

[@craigelectric5241]

YOU GOTTA HAVE A YACHT !!! HOW YOU GONNA GITTA PARIS 🤷

[@adamramsey5787]

Given someone was in US Army Psych Ops, they may have had to swear an oath not to use it on the American people. I postulate that the background of Psych Ops was developed with Academia, and certain Academics didn't take the same oath......or slid some research to their buddies....who didn't take the same oath. There is a Dark Side to Psychology.

[@pattybaselines]

Shocking

[@NO-zf8vi]

Preach.

[@johnwesley256]

So this is tax fraud unless they provide me services.