To be fair, first Plato was born in aristocratic family and got best education possible at the time with private tutors. He definitely did not go to equivalent of 3rd tier university.
“Fortunately criticizing Putin isn't grounds for being assassinated, as can be seen by the literal millions of people in Russia who haven't been murdered yet. It's easy: be nobody and have a discussion about your political beliefs in the kitchen with only close relatives.”
All well known recent deplatforming cases were done on a flimsy grounds for off-platform activities. They are very hard to defend.
Giving cash back creates wrong incentives and you sign up different audience than if you offer airline miles. Airline miles are in demand for people who travel often (affluent) in comparison to people who wants to get $150 after signing up for cc (poor).
That said there are offers to get cash for signing up. Some time ago First Republic Bank was giving $300 for cc sign up for Google employees (aka rich people).
Employers definitely need to know where you live to pay myriad of payroll taxes. if you lie, you commit tax fraud. It’s true virtually anywhere in the world - including all countries in Europe, not just US thing. You can often skirt law if you are small enough though - nobody cares about random web designer on upwork.
I don't mean as like a privacy thing, I have no issue actually telling them where I live. I guess what I'm getting at is it feels weirdly paternal, like they feel like they're paying me to live in a certain level of comfort and they'll adjust the compensation to meet that level. Whereas I'd rather they pay me the value of the service I provide, no matter where I'm providing that service from. If there is no need to be physically in their office, then 40 hours of my time should be worth the same if I'm sat somewhere with high cost of living or somewhere with low cost of living.
That has nothing to do with the salary-question though. You could separate that completely (and many do via contractors: nobody asks a contractor where they live to set a price for their work): have one party in the company negotiate the salary, and have another deal with employee locations as required by law. Those two don't need to have any contact.
Taxes would be one of the legal requirements, yes. They are required and have a valid interest (as in "who are you, and how can we reach you?") to know where you live. "So we can figure out how much we need to pay you" is not a valid interest in my view. You're not getting paid to live in a certain area, you're getting paid to provide X hours of your time each week.
Tulsa is not geographically limited and has enough empty space for practically unlimited build out (similar to bay area or LA in 50 years ago). Tech in Tulsa will cause construction boom but not bay area house prices.
Many foreigners treat PhD and especially Masters program as a way to get visa and access to USA - doing actual research is secondary goal. $30k/year is poverty wage in US but solid pay for somebody from eastern europe, India or China. Programs will be in jeopardy because they won’t be able to do visa/salary arbitrage which could positive thing and lead to more Americans in those programs.
Doing a Master's/PhD from a good university isn't a cakewalk for these foreign students. It's not something you just buy and forget with your parents' money - you have to work quite hard, compensate for language and other educational gaps, and then succeed in landing a good job and the H1B lottery. It's a risky investment.
America must ask itself why its students are not interested in grad school. Unaffordability (especially after an expensive undergrad) is absolutely a major issue, but from my experience at an Ivy, very few Americans were interested in grad school. And maybe that's fine, because doing research* is probably something that makes sense only for a small percentage of students. So there may not be a problem here, unless increasing this is an actual goal.
Without explicit measures, and with a more globally accessible approach to admissions, it stands to reason that the PhD demographics would move towards global population ratios, adjusted for access and affordability. And that's been the secular trend of the past 20 years.
*Master's is not research, and is primarily a way for universities to make money.
I'm pretty sure there is a portion of H1Bs that is reserved for people with advanced US degrees. Doing grad school in the US can dramatically increase your chances of getting an H1B.
I remember the professor asking a student from China how he was doing with the class being taught in English. The student replied, "Uh... book. I read book." At that moment I caught a glimpse of how big the language barrier could be, and how much sheer work it would take to overcome it.
You do not really spend much time in cabin - you are either outside the ship during stops or in restaurants/bars/deck/pool during sea time. Inside cabins are often amazing value and work well if you do not have kids.
