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Cédric Villani: mathematician challenging to be Paris mayor

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Re: Cédric Villani: mathematician challenging to be Paris mayor

#111

Post by yodsanklai »

flashyfaffe2 wrote: post #15
gabaix wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What radical changes would you like to see? I don't live in Paris but I may be living there in the years to come.

Not radical changes but just expect some common sense being applied. Over the last decade housing prices has doubled and the city receives a small percentage for each transactions. However this money did benefit only for the whole community but rather for clientlism. Debt has been getting higher and so the taxes. Driving has been made impossible and restaurants are too expensing for the similar service and quality yo…

> Driving has been made impossible

Maybe this is a good thing.

> restaurants are too expensing for the similar service and quality you can get in London

Is this something that a mayor can control? there are things such as minimal wages that can interfere with service prices on which a mayor has not influence.

That being said, I don't know if Villani will be a good mayor or not. But there are a few things I appreciate.

He is (as expected) very knowledgable in scientific and technological matters, and this is refreshing compared to other politicians who are clueless.

He had an international career. Most French politicians don't even speak English and have never worked in a foreign country.

I listened to him in an interview where he talked about ecology, energy and so on, and he was well-aware of the challenges we're facing.

Overall, he sounds like a reasonable, practical, person to me. Not overly ideological.

Re: Cédric Villani: mathematician challenging to be Paris mayor

#112

Post by LunaSea »

justAlittleCom wrote: post #103
LunaSea wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So because France had colonies they now have an obligation to take in foreign students?

It's a moral obligation, yes. Plus, it's still nowadays a very powerful lever to keep relationship with local elites.

No, it isn't. They are independent countries and should be treated as such. Diplomatic bribes aren't a good enough reason to continue doing subsidising this.

Re: Cédric Villani: mathematician challenging to be Paris mayor

#113

Post by p4bl0 »

justAlittleCom wrote: post #104
generationP wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious, what's been going on with Parcoursup? (I don't read enough French to understand the discussions.) Also, I'm not surprised that tuition for foreigners is a lever they are pulling. A government is responsible, first and foremost, to its own citizens. Racism? Really? What about "localism" or "separation of duties"?

About parcoursup, nobody really knows up to my knowledge. About the tuition for foreigner, very few university applied it, and it has been declared unconstitutional by the "conseil constitutionnel" (it's kind of the french supreme court).

About Parcoursup, we know: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21409203

Re: Cédric Villani: mathematician challenging to be Paris mayor

#114

Post by LeanderK »

tosser197 wrote: post #107
LeanderK wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it will be the death of society and culture if rank areas of study by ROI. Businesses need engineers and accountants, but society needs philosophers, artists, musicians and social scientists. It's about the balance between those two. Actually, I am not sure what its like in the United States. Are only the rich allowed to study art or theater?

Why would anyone poor study it assuming that person is not a grnius in the area? It seems like a fantastic way to continue the income hardships your parents endured, even if college (and dorm) is free. I am against an heavy discrimination of pricing/subsidizing based on major/area, but not because of the argument 'poor people wouldn't study art', that's a weak argument.

> Why would anyone poor study it assuming that person is not a grnius in the area? It seems like a fantastic way to continue the income hardships your parents endured, even if college (and dorm) is free.

I know a few that are studying art or music and are definitly not wealthy. A former roommate studies music and her parents are old-school lower working-class. They know they're not going to make much money. They are doing it anyway. It's their life. Also, nobody knows whether they're a genius or not, it's harder to quantify than mathmatical abilities, at least in some areas. A lot of the art-students I know are fully aware of their prospects. I am currently taking some philosophy-seminars and the philosophy-majors are also not ignorant of the situation they're in.

An art-student I know recently married and it's going to be hard to raise kids because she's the only one that is going to make some money, at least consistenly. And she's a teacher, so it's also not much. We talked about it, it's not that he doesn't know.

Most of my friends are not doing something technical, or business-realted (art, music, literature) and I always feel lucky (or undeserving?) because I just don't have those existential problems while still doing something that I chose because I really wanted to. I have always chosen stuff because I had the inner drive to do it.

> but not because of the argument 'poor people wouldn't study art', that's a weak argument.

I think that's still a perfectly valid arguments, especially with art.

To finish my argument, I don't know how most of the would finance themselfs if they would have to heavily borrow money to study their subject. And I think society benefits heavily from them. They tour around giving concerts, organizing art-installations etc.

Re: Cédric Villani: mathematician challenging to be Paris mayor

#116

Post by black_puppydog »

enriquto wrote: post #68
xwolfi wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Foreigners aren't a "race", what are you saying. The proper definition of foreigner in this context is: never paid any taxes and most likely will not later. If foreigners in China, Chile or Uganda start paying french taxes, I'll follow you. On raising in the Shanghai index, it's bullshit only if you don't want to compete. Sure the metrics can be discussed but the impact of the low rank is very much here: top research…

> If foreigners in China, Chile or Uganda start paying french taxes, I'll follow you. As a non-french national living in France since 2011, I don't follow you. I'm paying the same taxes as my french colleagues, and I'm very happy about that.

And to clarify: that also applies for PhD salaries in France, as well as "housing tax" (taxe d'habitation) both of which will be paid during the studies, so even if you just arrive for the studies and leave straight after.

Re: Cédric Villani: mathematician challenging to be Paris mayor

#117

Post by pnako »

p4bl0 wrote: post #70
xwolfi wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Foreigners aren't a "race", what are you saying. The proper definition of foreigner in this context is: never paid any taxes and most likely will not later. If foreigners in China, Chile or Uganda start paying french taxes, I'll follow you. On raising in the Shanghai index, it's bullshit only if you don't want to compete. Sure the metrics can be discussed but the impact of the low rank is very much here: top research…

Are you sure you know what racism is? Racism isn't about race. Otherwise it wouldn't exist: there is only one human race. Racism is about culturally perceived race. The vast majority of the people who are affected by this measure come from North Africa. You know, French ex-colonies. So yes, it was a racist move in my opinion. Concerning Shanghai index: what if I don't want to compete? The model of small French univer…

>Otherwise it wouldn't exist: there is only one human race.

Hopefully you won't need a bone marrow transplant anytime soon.

Re: Cédric Villani: mathematician challenging to be Paris mayor

#118

Post by devnulloverflow »

omaranto wrote: post #110
justAlittleCom wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where did they study ? (real question here, because USA is really good at attracting brilliant people from everywhere).

Well, as you might expect, many successful American mathematicians studied at top American universities such as Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford, UC Berkeley, Chicago, Michigan, etc. (Not sure if your were expecting a significantly different answer.)

It's a pretty common pattern for brilliant people to do a PhD in the Ivy league while having done undergrad in some other country entirely. Not sure if that is less or more common than having done undergrad at an Ivy and/or some other US university.

Re: Cédric Villani: mathematician challenging to be Paris mayor

#119

Post by baby »

devnulloverflow wrote: post #118
omaranto wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, as you might expect, many successful American mathematicians studied at top American universities such as Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford, UC Berkeley, Chicago, Michigan, etc. (Not sure if your were expecting a significantly different answer.)

It's a pretty common pattern for brilliant people to do a PhD in the Ivy league while having done undergrad in some other country entirely. Not sure if that is less or more common than having done undergrad at an Ivy and/or some other US university.

To add to this, foreign students coming to do math in the US have a huge advance compared to other students (due to their educating system being more advanced), and are thus prone to continue over achieving.
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