When a man ("dad") impregnates a woman ("mom"), should he have any rights over the unborn baby?
Assumptions:
Mom and dad are unmarried.
Sex was consensual.
Both living in the US.
Abortion is legal.
Questions:
Mom wants to have the child but dad doesn't want do. Should dad have any say in whether or not the baby gets aborted? If mom decides to have the baby agains dad's will, should he be forced to pay child support? Why / why not?
Dad wants to have the child but mom doesn't want to. Should dad be able to prevent mom from getting an abortion? Why / why not?
Prompt: The pro-choice movement in the US is sometimes biased in such a way that only mom is supposed to have any 'choice' while dad doesn't get to do any choosing (beyond the fact that he chose to ejaculate inside mom, but in some cases it's not so clear that even this was actually a choice*). While it's perfectly acceptable for mom to exercise her choice in this matter and 'choose not to be a mother,' it's considered quite insensitive for dad to 'choose not to be a father.'
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*One wouldn't call it a choice if it was a result of an accident (suppose the condom was faulty, or the pill didn't work). For a more extreme example, we might suppose it to have been a result of a deception on mom's part (for instance, she might have tricked dad into thinking she was on the pill when she actually wasn't).
PS: I don't really visit this sub-forum, so please forgive me if this topic has already been covered.
--- TLDR: If mom decides to have the baby agains dad's will, should he be forced to pay child support? Why / why not?
WebEx will allow you to hold a meeting with 3 participants for free.
If you need more than that, you can sign up for a 2 week free trial. The trial also includes a phone conference line for your presentation.
Sounds good. Luckily, 3 is the exact number of participants I have (myself and two colleagues). I'll look into to it!
To be honest, I was looking for something a lot simpler. You know how MTG players stream their online games with audio commentary? Isn't there some way I can just do that with my presentation? Basically, some software that records whatever is on my screen and streams it live? (Then we could simultaneously have a skype session running for audio).
---
EDIT: Some questions about WebEx
Do my colleagues have to download any app to participate in the meeting? Or can they do it directly from the browser? Will they be able to use their computer mic for audio input during the meeting?
What do you need to do with this, and what is this for? I mean, your OP wasn't too specific.
Thanks for your response! Unfortunately, that's not what I meant. To be more specific:
I'm going to present a paper at a conference next month, but before that I want to do a 'dry run' of presentation for a couple of my colleagues to get their feedback on it. Problem is that I'm out of town at the moment so I have to do the presentation over the internet. Any way I can do this in the form of a 'live presentation'?
But it does demonstrate pretty well that probability and statistics can be pretty unintuitive and difficult to grasp for the lay person without a background in the field.
Here's a somewhat related problem that demonstrates the unintuitive nature of statistics:
Suppose that 0.5% of the population has a genetic defect that predisposes them to a rare type of cancer. A new test has been developed in order to determine whether a person has the defect. It has a 1% chance of a false negative (the test says you're clear when you have the defect) and a 5% chance of a false positive (the test says you have the defect and you really don't). Given that your test results came up positive, what is the probability that you have the defect? Assume that the defect is uniformly distributed among the population, and race, gender, nationality, and other factors are uncorrelated with the defect.
It's a lot less than you might think!
This is a classic problem in Bayesian statistics. The key fact is: P(A and B) = P(A)*P(B|A) = P(B)*P(A|B), so P(B|A) = [P(B)*P(A|B)]/[P(B)*P(A|B)+P(Not B)*P(A|Not B)]
P(A) = P(B)*P(A|B) + P(Not B)*P(A|Not B) in the denominator. This comes from the fact that the only two options are either having the defect and getting a positive result or not having the defect and getting a positive result.
Let A be having a positive result on the test and let B be having the genetic defect.
The probability of getting a positive result given having the genetic defect [P(A|B)] is 0.99, and the probability of getting a positive result given not having the genetic defect [P(A|Not B)] is 0.05. However, the key fact is that P(B) = .005 and P(Not B) = .995.
So the probability of having the defect given a positive test result is: .00495/.0547, or about 9.04%
Even given a positive test result, you only have about a 9% chance of having the defect.
And that is why it is important to always get a second opinion with stuff like this!
Thank you so much for posting this. This puzzle has motivated me to learn some basic probability theory! Could you point me towards some resources perhaps?
Quote from United States Postal Inspection Service »
If you do not wish to pay for unsolicited merchandise or make a donation to a charity sending such an item, you may do one of three things (in each case, by law, you have no obligation to the sender):
If you have not opened the package, you may mark it "Return to Sender," and the Postal Service will return it with no additional postage charged to you.
If you open the package and don't like what you find, you may throw it away.
If you open the package and like what you find, you may keep it for free. In this instance, "finders-keepers" applies unconditionally.
Furthermore, it is illegal for a company that sends you unordered merchandise to follow the mailing with a bill or dunning communication.
Q. Am I obligated to return or pay for merchandise I never ordered?
A. No. If you receive merchandise that you didn’t order, you have a legal right to keep it as a free gift.
Q. Must I notify the seller if I keep unordered merchandise without paying for it?
A. You have no legal obligation to notify the seller. However, it is a good idea to write a letter to the company stating that you didn’t order the item and, therefore, you have a legal right to keep it for free. This may discourage the seller from sending you bills or dunning notices, or it may help clear up an honest error. Send your letter by certified mail. Keep the return receipt and a copy of the letter for your records. You may need it later.
It has its pros and cons. Chief amongst them (for me, anyway) is that it would standardize what tipped staff would receive which has the effect of removing survival of the fittest from the service. The way things are now, servers have to work hard and be great at their jobs (ie, provide consistently good-to-excellent service) to make consistently good money while poorer servers typically make considerably less and more often than not scrub out (which has the nice bonus to customers of removing from the serving pool the servers which were not well-appreciated overall by other customers). Standardizing what servers makes removes this from the equation which isn't something I'm heavily in favor of. Aside from the thinning of the herd (no, I don't trust that management will always have an accurate view of which of their servers need to be retrained/removed), as a server myself I'm incredibly wary of a new system that carries the risk of me making less than I do now. I've been serving for over a decade and I'm good at what I do, I'm leery of making less honestly.
Moreover, it would just be nigh impossible to completely overturn the system, it's incredibly entrenched. Customers would be unhappy about raised prices, to say the least. And prices would by necessity go up. It's just not a risk business owners are apt to take. The current system helps keep establishments profitable and changing that represents a great risk. The end result could in fact be a positive thing for many businesses, but I doubt many would take on the risk of being one of the businesses that don't recover from the initial customer downturn.
As much as a different system could be easier for customers (though, I don't really think it's that hard to grasp for those who live with it, I can see it being harder for those who don't know the standards and how to apply them), I just can't see it being instituted here.
I am in complete agreement with you regarding the fact that the tipping system is deeply entrenched in the American service industry, and therefore it would be well nigh impossible to overturn this system. Well, I probably wouldn't go so far as to say impossible, but it would require a tremendous amount of time and effort, and it is unlikely that anybody has either the ability or the inclination to make this happen. I certainly don't have any idea how this system could be overturned!
However, I must express vehement disagreement with the hypothetical claim that you express in the first part of your post. You say that if the tipping system were eliminated, this would consequently lead to a decline in the quality of work in the service industry (because a "survival of the fittest" element is being removed). I think this is wildly inaccurate because you are effectively claiming that the employees of an industry with a tipping system are qualitatively superior to the employees of an industry without a tipping system (because the employees of an industry with a tipping system have been put through a rigorous "survival of the fittest" method of selection). This would commit you to the following claims:
1. Employees of the American service industry are qualitatively superior to their European counterparts.
And even more astonishingly -
2. Tipped employees of the American service industry are qualitatively superior to their counterparts in other comparable industries where the tipping system does not exist.
Does anybody know how to control the information that shows up in the little box below your profile pic in your Facebook timeline?
I've attached two sample profiles showing the differences. My friend's box has the following info: Studied at, From, Born, Religious Views. Whereas my box has the following info: Studied at, Lives in, From.
I have no idea how to control what shows up on this box. Any info would be appreciated; thanks.
Aren't wait staff taxed based on assuming 15% of your meal cost in an attempt to prevent lost taxes from hiding tips?
Yes, not only this but in most states they are also paid significantly less than minimum wage (because tips are assumed). This is true in America but not anywhere else in the world, which is why tipping is obligatory in America but not anywhere else in the world. Given that this system is in place, you should probably tip in America. But the important question is: why can't the service industry in America adopt a simpler model (like the rest of the world) whereby the staff doesn't have to depend on gratuity to earn a living? Such a system would also be more user-friendly from the consumer's point of view.
Here is my thing. Because I dont drink alcohol, the couple of times Ive been in a bar in the 10 years Ive been able to legally do so, if I did order something, it was orange juice. I know how much orange juice costs, I know how much orange juice I could make myself for say $1, and the orange juice I got there was the same quality as I could make at home. What would cost me .25-.50 to make at home, I was being charged something like $4 for there. Im sorry, but if Im allready being charged some obscene amount for a drink, Im not going to tip you if I have to go up to the bar, stand there and wait to be helped, order the item, pay, and then wait for it to be made and then take it myself over to where I am sitting. As it stands these days all I drink is water. I dont go to bars to socialize, I dont believe in paying a huge markup for a drink (no matter what it is). As I said, if I was in a bar that you sat down and had servers that waited on you and brought you the drinks or food you ordered and such, that would be a completely different story. A bar that doesnt do this, in my mind, the tips are built into the huge markup on the cost of the drink. As Ive said, Im not a bar patron, so Im not the best person to talk to about bars and such, Im sure regulars would have a different viewpoint than I do.
That doesnt change my viewpoint and how I handle sit-down restaurants and such as mentioned in a previous post in this thread.
I think you're quite wrong about this for the simple reason that your personal beliefs about how much a glass of orange juice should cost at a bar have absolutely nothing to do how much a glass of orange juice actually costs at a bar and further have nothing to do with whether or not the bartender should get tipped. Also, I'm not sure why you think that the cost of orange juice at a bar should be related to the cost of squeezing your own orange juice at home? But that's besides the point because the cost of the orange juice was in no way determined by the bartender and he has no direct share of that revenue.
As MikeyG has already pointed out to you, most other customers DO tip. So, they either don't have the same beliefs as you do or they don't act on those beliefs in the way that you do. So, given a choice between serving a tipping customer and a non-tipping customer (given that tipping in the norm) - it is quite natural and also justified for the bartender to serve the tipping customer before serving the non-tipping customer.
Further, you want to claim that tipping a bartender is not necessary if he serves you at the bar but it is necessary if he serves you at your table? I don't understand the logic that underlies your reasoning here. Pouring you a drink and serving it to you at the bar is not tipworthy but carrying your drink twenty feet from the bar to the table is tipworthy?
thats what, well i wouldnt say confused, but dazzled me when i was in San Francisco last year, its really hard to know how much you have to pay over there....also, what i also found interesting, when you are a larger group of people the tip is already included in the bill (was 18% or so) instead of just a suggested tip
i admit, i am cheap but i always give a tip...though mostly for my own convenience. if i have to pay like 43.21€ then ill round that up to 45€ since haveing so many coins in the wallet just sucks (remember, the smallest note we got is 5€, everything lower is coins only)
Yeah, I agree. As I was trying to say, a lot of it has to do with cultural differences. I think a lot of people (all Americans I'm guessing) writing in this thread are missing this point. I'm fine with them trying to educate fellow Americans on the nuances of the tipping system and why it's necessary in their society. But I don't think they should be claiming that it's the best system for the service industry to follow anywhere in the world. If there is a better / simpler system that could be implemented - why not?
Assumptions:
Questions:
Prompt: The pro-choice movement in the US is sometimes biased in such a way that only mom is supposed to have any 'choice' while dad doesn't get to do any choosing (beyond the fact that he chose to ejaculate inside mom, but in some cases it's not so clear that even this was actually a choice*). While it's perfectly acceptable for mom to exercise her choice in this matter and 'choose not to be a mother,' it's considered quite insensitive for dad to 'choose not to be a father.'
---
*One wouldn't call it a choice if it was a result of an accident (suppose the condom was faulty, or the pill didn't work). For a more extreme example, we might suppose it to have been a result of a deception on mom's part (for instance, she might have tricked dad into thinking she was on the pill when she actually wasn't).
PS: I don't really visit this sub-forum, so please forgive me if this topic has already been covered.
---
TLDR: If mom decides to have the baby agains dad's will, should he be forced to pay child support? Why / why not?
Sounds good. Luckily, 3 is the exact number of participants I have (myself and two colleagues). I'll look into to it!
To be honest, I was looking for something a lot simpler. You know how MTG players stream their online games with audio commentary? Isn't there some way I can just do that with my presentation? Basically, some software that records whatever is on my screen and streams it live? (Then we could simultaneously have a skype session running for audio).
---
EDIT: Some questions about WebEx
Do my colleagues have to download any app to participate in the meeting? Or can they do it directly from the browser? Will they be able to use their computer mic for audio input during the meeting?
Thanks for your response! Unfortunately, that's not what I meant. To be more specific:
I'm going to present a paper at a conference next month, but before that I want to do a 'dry run' of presentation for a couple of my colleagues to get their feedback on it. Problem is that I'm out of town at the moment so I have to do the presentation over the internet. Any way I can do this in the form of a 'live presentation'?
Thank you so much for posting this. This puzzle has motivated me to learn some basic probability theory! Could you point me towards some resources perhaps?
You had a few days worth of facial hair and you shaved DRY? I've never heard of anybody doing that. Doesn't it hurt?
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/products/pro15.shtm
I am in complete agreement with you regarding the fact that the tipping system is deeply entrenched in the American service industry, and therefore it would be well nigh impossible to overturn this system. Well, I probably wouldn't go so far as to say impossible, but it would require a tremendous amount of time and effort, and it is unlikely that anybody has either the ability or the inclination to make this happen. I certainly don't have any idea how this system could be overturned!
However, I must express vehement disagreement with the hypothetical claim that you express in the first part of your post. You say that if the tipping system were eliminated, this would consequently lead to a decline in the quality of work in the service industry (because a "survival of the fittest" element is being removed). I think this is wildly inaccurate because you are effectively claiming that the employees of an industry with a tipping system are qualitatively superior to the employees of an industry without a tipping system (because the employees of an industry with a tipping system have been put through a rigorous "survival of the fittest" method of selection). This would commit you to the following claims:
1. Employees of the American service industry are qualitatively superior to their European counterparts.
And even more astonishingly -
2. Tipped employees of the American service industry are qualitatively superior to their counterparts in other comparable industries where the tipping system does not exist.
I've attached two sample profiles showing the differences. My friend's box has the following info: Studied at, From, Born, Religious Views. Whereas my box has the following info: Studied at, Lives in, From.
I have no idea how to control what shows up on this box. Any info would be appreciated; thanks.
Yes, not only this but in most states they are also paid significantly less than minimum wage (because tips are assumed). This is true in America but not anywhere else in the world, which is why tipping is obligatory in America but not anywhere else in the world. Given that this system is in place, you should probably tip in America. But the important question is: why can't the service industry in America adopt a simpler model (like the rest of the world) whereby the staff doesn't have to depend on gratuity to earn a living? Such a system would also be more user-friendly from the consumer's point of view.
I think you're quite wrong about this for the simple reason that your personal beliefs about how much a glass of orange juice should cost at a bar have absolutely nothing to do how much a glass of orange juice actually costs at a bar and further have nothing to do with whether or not the bartender should get tipped. Also, I'm not sure why you think that the cost of orange juice at a bar should be related to the cost of squeezing your own orange juice at home? But that's besides the point because the cost of the orange juice was in no way determined by the bartender and he has no direct share of that revenue.
As MikeyG has already pointed out to you, most other customers DO tip. So, they either don't have the same beliefs as you do or they don't act on those beliefs in the way that you do. So, given a choice between serving a tipping customer and a non-tipping customer (given that tipping in the norm) - it is quite natural and also justified for the bartender to serve the tipping customer before serving the non-tipping customer.
Further, you want to claim that tipping a bartender is not necessary if he serves you at the bar but it is necessary if he serves you at your table? I don't understand the logic that underlies your reasoning here. Pouring you a drink and serving it to you at the bar is not tipworthy but carrying your drink twenty feet from the bar to the table is tipworthy?
Yeah, I agree. As I was trying to say, a lot of it has to do with cultural differences. I think a lot of people (all Americans I'm guessing) writing in this thread are missing this point. I'm fine with them trying to educate fellow Americans on the nuances of the tipping system and why it's necessary in their society. But I don't think they should be claiming that it's the best system for the service industry to follow anywhere in the world. If there is a better / simpler system that could be implemented - why not?