shiv sastry wrote: [ on 06:35 AM 9/13/2007 ]
> well paid people are less likely to
> be tempted by the same absolute amounts than poorly paid people (they
> may be tempted by large amounts, of course)
I accept this as a valid opinion that you hold, but I would like to see more
clear evidence that this is the case, because the statement carries
interesting social implications.
The invisible part of Rishab's thesis, because it is generally
assumed, is "other things being equal".
"Other things" are clearly not equal in the example you construct
below. To take one example, you ignore the effects of social
conditioning that pushes Indian (and others too!) immigrants to get
postgraduate degrees, and work hard in their new milieu.
See, for example, http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpdse94/chap3/minorits.htm
Imagine a student from India trying to do a postgraduate course in the US or
Australia and is paying for himelf by limited money paid by his father and a
part-time job.
He has less absolute amounts of money than many of his peers and the
people in
his new nation and is therefore more likely to be tempted to cheat or steal.
This would call for racial profiling as a way of tackling crime, and it would
be right.
--
((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))
