[Tloewald]

Sounds like as a CS person you've peripherally processed politic science and come up with binary answers to complex ill-posed questions. Academia is not socialism and even communism is not completely lacking in value signals (otherwise it wouldn't be able to deliver excellent medical care, for example).

If you're so convinced academia has no value signals it seems rather foolish (or at minimum hypocritical) of you to pursue academic credentials.

[seanmcdirmid]

Just to be clear, just because something isn't optimal doesn't mean its not worth being a part of. You can be critical and not leave at the same time. Actually, the ones who stay are the critical ones who have hopes (founded or not) that the system can improve.

[Tloewald]

Having no value signals is a lot worse than being sub-optimal. Everything is sub-optimal.