4 ms·

You wrote a lot of text, but I think you are speaking from a position of ignorance or emotion, to be honest, on the topic of high salaries. You seem to be argu

You wrote a lot of text, but I think you are speaking from a position of ignorance or emotion, to be honest, on the topic of high salaries. You seem to be arguing that it's impossible for anyone to be paid too much, because of the simple existence of the free market system. But that way of thinking completely ignores the outcomes of that tuition spent. If other countries produce graduates that are the same or better, for less tuition, then you should be looking at that as a flaw in our system. That means the free market is not working efficiently, and more competition in the sector would drive prices down without loss of quality. As for the questions about international students, I decline to comment, as I agree it's specious.

IfOnlyYouKnew 6y ago
> You seem to be arguing that it's impossible for anyone to be paid too much, because of the simple existence of the free market system. That's sort of the definition of a salary subject to market forces, yes. But, as an alternative, I even suggested comparing administrators' salaries with education-matched employees in IT startups. You're not offering any specific alternative, but OP's comment and yours seem to basically amount to "I know what people should earn, and 'administration' is useless anyway." > If other countries produce graduates that are the same or better, for less tuition, then you should be looking at that as a flaw in our system. Many countries produce many things cheaper than the US, often at the same quality. Foodstuffs are an obvious example, but there are many more: a pilot in China or South Africa earns far less than an American, even though they are trained to the same standard. Does this mean US pilots are overpaid? Taxi drivers the world over provide pretty much equal service, but does that mean US taxi drivers should earn $1.20/day (average Iraqi daily income for taxis)? But even assuming US universities are too expensive, which I would tend to agree with, I was specifically challenging the idea that high salaries are as dominant a part of the explanation as the relative number of comments here focussing on it suggests. And because "administrators" was and remains ill-defined, I offered specific reasons why that is unlikely for a number of groups that people might be referring to. While you've devoted a paragraph to reading the emotional subtext of my comment, you neglected my rather plain request to be a bit more specific: by "administrator", are you referring to the Dean of the Law School, the Quinnipiac Polling Call Center Temp, the Executive Assistant to the Greenkeeper, the Physics Postdoc,...? Anyway, here's four alternative explanations that make more sense, IMO: - US universities spend more on research, and use tuition money to (partially) fund these activities. - US undergrad programs spent far more on student life, such as luxurious dormitories or sports centres - US tuition includes medical care, doesn't it? US medical care is famously inefficient. - US universities, even public ones, rely far more on tuition than universities in other countries, that get comparably higher government subsidies
- KptMarchewa 6y ago
  You try to wrongly compare to Iraq of all places instead of other first-world, high income places.
  - prewett 6y ago
    I think you missed his point, which is that both the Iraqi and US taxi driver provide about the same amount of value, yet while one gets paid more than the other (despite provide equal value). He implies that people don't see this as a problem, and suggests that maybe the salaries of the administrators are something similar.

IfOnlyYouKnew 6y ago

> You seem to be arguing that it's impossible for anyone to be paid too much, because of the simple existence of the free market system. That's sort of the definition of a salary subject to market forces, yes. But, as an alternative, I even suggested comparing administrators' salaries with education-matched employees in IT startups. You're not offering any specific alternative, but OP's comment and yours seem to basically amount to "I know what people should earn, and 'administration' is useless anyway." > If other countries produce graduates that are the same or better, for less tuition, then you should be looking at that as a flaw in our system. Many countries produce many things cheaper than the US, often at the same quality. Foodstuffs are an obvious example, but there are many more: a pilot in China or South Africa earns far less than an American, even though they are trained to the same standard. Does this mean US pilots are overpaid? Taxi drivers the world over provide pretty much equal service, but does that mean US taxi drivers should earn $1.20/day (average Iraqi daily income for taxis)? But even assuming US universities are too expensive, which I would tend to agree with, I was specifically challenging the idea that high salaries are as dominant a part of the explanation as the relative number of comments here focussing on it suggests. And because "administrators" was and remains ill-defined, I offered specific reasons why that is unlikely for a number of groups that people might be referring to. While you've devoted a paragraph to reading the emotional subtext of my comment, you neglected my rather plain request to be a bit more specific: by "administrator", are you referring to the Dean of the Law School, the Quinnipiac Polling Call Center Temp, the Executive Assistant to the Greenkeeper, the Physics Postdoc,...? Anyway, here's four alternative explanations that make more sense, IMO: - US universities spend more on research, and use tuition money to (partially) fund these activities. - US undergrad programs spent far more on student life, such as luxurious dormitories or sports centres - US tuition includes medical care, doesn't it? US medical care is famously inefficient. - US universities, even public ones, rely far more on tuition than universities in other countries, that get comparably higher government subsidies

KptMarchewa 6y ago
You try to wrongly compare to Iraq of all places instead of other first-world, high income places.
- prewett 6y ago
  I think you missed his point, which is that both the Iraqi and US taxi driver provide about the same amount of value, yet while one gets paid more than the other (despite provide equal value). He implies that people don't see this as a problem, and suggests that maybe the salaries of the administrators are something similar.