[26] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
Re: LIVING WAGE SIT-IN AT HARVARD (fwd)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Nathan J. Williams)
Thu Apr 19 11:34:53 2001
To: Ezra Rosen <erosen@MIT.EDU>
Cc: mit-talk@MIT.EDU
From: nathanw@MIT.EDU (Nathan J. Williams)
Date: 19 Apr 2001 11:18:03 -0400
In-Reply-To: <2.2.32.20010419070217.00d660d0@po9.mit.edu>
Message-ID: <mtuwv8glxzo.fsf@contents-vnder-pressvre.mit.edu>
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Resent-From: jhawk@MIT.EDU
Resent-To: mit-talk-mtg@charon.MIT.EDU
Ezra Rosen <erosen@MIT.EDU> writes:
> >Can you back that up with numbers?
> >As smug as it would make me feel to think that "my" institution is
> >more liberal-minded than Harvard, I don't actually believe it.
>
> It's true, whether you believe it or not.
I'm an engineer. I like things documented. The only data I have about
the "living wage" at either MIT or Harvard is from people's assertions
on this mailing list. That's not reliable enough for me. Please don't
try to back up assertions with more assertions.
> It makes no sense in this case. Harvard has enough of a money surplus to
> pay the living wage, have enough left over to buy the state of New
> Hampshire, and still make money on their endowment.
Claims that they should spend the contents of their endowment aren't a
good argument; that's called deficit spending, and you can't keep it
up for very long unless you're a world government. Remember, you don't
want them to just pay a living wage for this year; you want them to
keep doing it.
If they want to pay a living wage and keep up doing so, they'll have
to cut other things out of their budget. But as jhawk keeps asking,
how much money are we talking about?
- Nathan
