Comment by jgalt212
8 days ago
> The answer is, because the money doesn’t come with a loyalty oath
But it does come with some reasonable level of consideration and appreciation.
8 days ago
> The answer is, because the money doesn’t come with a loyalty oath
But it does come with some reasonable level of consideration and appreciation.
You don't know how they feel, so what you're saying is "they have to show/express appreciation," which is synonymous with a loyalty oath.
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The government pays to get good universities which attract smart foreign who come to the US to study on these universities.
Maybe the government should appreciate them not the other way around.
Yeah, I agree. The government appreciates, or should appreciate, the good uses its taxpayers' money is put towards. As to the other intractables above, appreciation and loyalty are very far from the same thing.
I don't think it ever crosses these people's minds that some other country PAID FOR these people's education and they are now USING that education elsewhere for the profit of a foreign nation.
All my high school and college education was at free schools/colleges in my home country, paid for by taxpayer money. All incredibly competitive places, with very high maintenance costs compared to the other colleges around, not a single US dollar was invested in me and here I am paying taxes and improving this place.
The bargain the US gets from this is one of the biggest reasons it can do what it does, the investments it makes are compounded by the work of the people that it never put a dime for.
It is their right to be there. They do not have to show appreciation and the current government should never be one deciding these what is appreciation. Bowing to authority is exactly the opposite of what education is about.
Being paid what you're owed doesn't necessitate gratitude.
For those who disagree with this, when was the last time you thanked your boss for your paycheck?
But, I bet many have thanked their boss for the opportunity given to them. This statement of gratitude is a tacit acknowledgement of salary.
5 replies →
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Why do you think this?
Because it's a transcation and there are two parties to the transaction. And for these transaction to occur in a repeated fashion neither side should feel they are being taken advantage of.
I don't think anyone feels taken advantage of. I think most people involved in academia value the complexities and jagged edges that come with an international student body. And the outcome - the preeminent education system in the world that keeps the US at the cutting edge of science and technology and has for nearly a hundred years - is indisputable.
A government is not a person who “feels” anything. Anyone who is in the USA for work/study has agreed to a contract, and there is nothing in that contract that requires intelectual subservience. If the USA government finds that the person is not doing their part according to the contract, which would mean being taken advantage of, they are more than welcome to act on that. This has nothing to do with what’s happening.
You’re applying social norms that exist between humans, based on feelings, to a completely different relationship that includes no feelings at all. Would you like another government, with another political direction opposed to yours, to start asking you for appreciation?
One of the problems with trying to apply the Objectivist view to a situation like this is that often experts need to tell their patrons true things they don't want to hear. I'll leave any sociological or economic examples aside and say, to pick a couple that Ayn Rand herself didn't believe, that smoking causes cancer and air pollution is bad for the human body. If the patron doesn't want to believe this new fact they have been told, they might feel taken advantage of. They might feel that if a science department got public funding only to come to those conclusions, that the scientists should be fired.
What about e.g. writing an op-ed expressing one's views conveys a lack of consideration and appreciation?
Consider that any competent manager will value polite debate and constructive criticism far more than the empty words of "yes" men.
Guess which category "reasonable ... consideration and appreciation" falls into.
Put another way, if you read North Korean state media, you will find that they always have a reasonable level of consideration and appreciation for their government.
"you didn't say thank you!!!"