Lately, the news has been focusing on the “devastating consequences” that will come from Trump’s cuts to research programs at universities funded by the US government. It seems like every day there’s another news story highlighting how many lives will be lost, suffering increased, jobs lost and programs hamstrung by these cuts.
Today, it occurred to me that I should look at the numbers before getting worked up over anecdotal news stories from people whose jobs and programs are directly impacted.
Here’s what I learned:
- 210,000 people are employed in research at universities.
- That is .12% of the US workforce.
Do you even know a single person who is employed as a researcher at a university? I don’t and as far as I am aware, I haven’t ever known anyone employed in such a role (except for TA’s when I was in college in the late 1980s).
Google AI tells me that the average person in the US knows 200-600 people. The means, statistically, the average person would know .24 to .72 people employed in University Research.
I don’t know about your social circle, but mine is much smaller than 200 people. So not only do I not know anyone working in university research, there’s less than a 1/4% chance I ever will.
Even if you’re at the top of this range as an extroverted hyper-connected person, you’ve got less than a 3/4% chance of knowing someone working in university research.
Now, let’s consider the impact on the US labor market.
- Are these cuts devastating to those directly affected? Absolutely.
- Are they devastating to the US labor market? Likely not.
If all of them were let go, we’d lose .12% jobs. Chances are, we wouldn’t even notice it economically or statistically.
Notice that I’m not arguing whether the funding should be cut. It’s obvious that Trump’s cuts are arbitrary, political, vengeful and capricious. I don’t approve of his methods or motivations.
From what I’ve read, it seems like some of the programs whose funding has been cut appear to be a poor use of tax dollars. Some, I suspect, are quite essential.
I’m not interested in researching the specifics of what programs are impacted. Those affected will know. Those who aren’t affected will likely never notice.
The question I asked myself is:
Should I pay attention to this? Should I try to do something about it? Should I even think about it?
Methinks not. The numbers don’t lie.
It’s out of my control, likely will not impact me or anyone I know and there is no Direct Action that I can do to change it.
