
Prison vs. Harvard in an unlikely debate - rohunati
http://www.wsj.com/articles/an-unlikely-debate-prison-vs-harvard-1442616928
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cperciva
This isn't far off from how the Putnam competition started: In 1933, five
years before it launched as an annual competition between universities, the
first Putnam mathematics competition was held between Harvard and the United
States Military Academy. Allegedly nobody thought the Army had much of a
chance, but unlike the students from Harvard they took the competition
seriously, and as in this latest competition the underdogs won.

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analog31
I was expecting to read about a debate on the relative merits of going to
prison, or to Harvard.

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jdhzzz
I was thinking it was the article about the merits of a Harvard education
versus being a prison guard.
[http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB100014240527487041322045762854...](http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704132204576285471510530398)

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VLM
Classic example of ignoring the std deviation and using mean instead of median
as if it holds any significance given a very unusual distribution curve. Its
truly a textbook example.

Selectivity in lower socioeconomic class jobs is hardly limited to great
paying jobs; there are similar stories about McDonalds being more selective in
hiring than the Harvard acceptance rate.

There's also a cause/effect malfunction in that kids going to Harvard is an
effect of getting rich, but getting rich is an effect of being a prison guard
in CA, two entirely different concepts.

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lazyant
"Republican politicians () argued that many law-abiding families struggled to
afford college and shouldn’t have pay for convicted criminals to get
degrees"\- while this opinion has merit, it shows again Republicans have no
compassion, it's a paradox that many called themselves Christian when in the
Bible Jesus explicitly commanded to help the imprisoned.

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ebfe
Surely you see the difference between helping the poor vs. taking other
people's money and using part of it to help the poor.

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akiselev
Surely you see the difference between just taking other people's money vs
requiring everyone above a certain means to pay into the social contract that
brings order to chaos and keeps us from Darwinian anarchy?

