“Historically, when the college-educated become politically radicalised, that does tend to lead to real shifts.” — Noam Scheiber

A university degree has always been seen as a passport out of the working class. But according to the New York Times’ Noam Scheiber, the reverse is now true. In his new book, Mutiny, Scheiber argues that the good white-collar jobs college once promised have been quietly disappearing over the last fifteen years. The result, he argues, is the rise and revolt of what he calls a “college-educated” working class.
Scheiber chose mutiny because it’s a term to describe workers who have lost confidence in management. College graduates who once imagined themselves as management-adjacent now regard the people in charge with deep suspicion. The university itself has become extractive — charging the same tuition for an art history degree as for an engineering degree, marketing video game design programmes to thousands of students who will never make a living from them, lending federal money with no skin in the game.
Scheiber warns that the ideological diploma divide has already closed. By 2020, college graduates were slightly to the left of non-college voters on taxation, regulation, and unions. Sympathy for socialism among college grads doubled between 2010 and 2020. Mamdani won eighty-five per cent of college graduates under thirty in New York City. When the educated radicalise and join forces with the traditional working class, Scheiber notes, the political order changes. This was as true in nineteenth-century China as in Russia in 1917, Iran 1979 and Poland in 1980.
College grads have nothing to lose but their diplomas.

Five Takeaways
• Mutiny, Not Revolution. A workplace term. Sailors who have lost confidence in the captain. College grads who once imagined themselves as management now regard the people in charge with deep suspicion.
• The Video Game Design Scam. Tens of thousands enrol. A tiny fraction make a living. Universities charge the same for art history as engineering. No other part of the economy works this way.
• The Diploma Divide Has Closed on Economics. By 2020, college grads were slightly left of non-college voters. Sympathy for socialism doubled. The economic majority is sitting out there.
• The 70/10 Gap. Seventy per cent support unions. Ten per cent are in one. Labour law gives employers too much leeway. Alternative organising fills the gap.
• When the Educated Radicalise. China. Russia. Iran 1979. Poland. Spain and Greece. The political order changes. The captain notices.

About the Guest
Noam Scheiber is a labour reporter for the New York Times and a former Rhodes Scholar. Mutiny is published today.
References
Mutiny: The Rise and Revolt of the College-Educated Working Class by Noam Scheiber

About Keen On America
Nobody asks more awkward questions than the Anglo-American writer and filmmaker Andrew Keen.
Website: https://keenon.tv/ Substack: https://keenon.substack.com/ YouTube: https://youtube.com/@KeenOnShow

Chapters:
00:00:31 Introduction: new book day, the betrayal of college graduates
00:02:46 Why mutiny, not revolution: a workplace term
00:05:56 The Rhodes Scholar who became a Starbucks organiser
00:10:10 Generation morality without class consciousness
00:15:33 Can the GOP become the party of workers?
00:18:00 The convergence of college and non-college voters on immigration and crime
00:20:14 What does betrayal feel like?
00:21:00 The video game design degree scam
00:24:37 The university as extractive system
00:27:15 Was Biden a New Deal president in a post-New Deal age?
00:31:45 Mamdani and the economic majority that’s sitting out there
00:32:45 The 70/10 gap: why traditional unions can’t close it
00:35:02 Tech workers, alternative organising, and the Alphabet Workers Union
00:38:50 Has the decline of knowledge work begun?
00:40:00 Luddites or Bolsheviks: when the college-educated radicalise
00:40:55 Iran 1979, Poland’s Solidarity, and the disruptive power of educated rage