I do not consider you a jerk or an asshole at all for bringing up this issue. Anyone who spends all day tinkering with spreadsheets and attending meetings is vulnerable to being replaced by AI systems, controlled by their superiors, the shareholders and upper management with stock options, who would jump at any opportunity to cut costs by laying off superfluous administrative employees. just as they have shipped their manufacturing to China, India, or Guatemala, where labor is dirt cheap. You are entirely right: small, middle-class college towns are the next "rust belt." The super-rich simply do not care.