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Comment by jacalata | Hacker News Reader

Comparing cost to the employer against the median income is nonsensical. At least try and estimate "median cost to an employer".

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There's slack, sure. But "nonsensical" is obviously false -- the two must be correlated else profit margins would be detached from labor costs, which we know is false at a macro level.

Do you think there could possibly be enough slack to justify calling this arrangement "slavery", which was the crux of my point?

Yes, they're correlated. If that's the only understanding you have of the relationship, would you agree with my assertion that the cost of employing a grad student is about 10% of the median cost of an employee?

I think we're off on the wrong foot here. I agree with you that median cost to the employer and median income are not exactly the same thing. I asked if you thought that changed the substance of my argument, and you didn't reply.

I assume your 10% figure here is purely rhetorical, since per my estimate and sibling comment's the cost of employing a graduate student is at least $50k. So your 10% estimate would imply the median cost of an employee is $500k, which is obviously not true.

I don't want to drive this further into nitpicking so I will conclude this exchange by conceding, again, that median income and median cost to employer are not the same thing. Have a good day.

I think your argument was a bad one which you attempted to shore up with an irrelevant and misleading rhetorical sleight of hand, comparing money grad students don't get to money other people do get and implying that because it was a high number that made them well off.

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