There has been a lot of discussion since Athens about foreign swimmers training in the United States. Most of them attend U.S. Universities, receive athletic scholarships, and compete at NCAA's. Some notable examples include Duje Draganja (Cal), Fred Bousquet and Kirsty Coventry (Auburn), Markus Rogan (Stanford), and the South African sprinters (Arizona). Some train in the U.S., but don't compete for a university (Inge de Bruijn). All of these athletes benefit from U.S. coaching, from training with U.S. swimmers, and in some cases, from financial support provided by U.S. entities (athletic scholarships). They all turn around and then win medals for other countries.
A couple questions: 1) What do you think about this arrangement generally? 2) Is it of benefit or detriment to U.S. swimming to have these foreign athletes training and competing here? 3) Should we be giving athletic scholarships, which are a scarce resource in swimming, to foreign athletes who will represent their own countries internationally instead of U.S.-born swimmers who will represent us internationally?
I'm sure there are other issues, but these come directly to mind.
I'm saying the sign of an advanced nation is the willingness to provide a decent standard of living for all its citizens regardless of their economic situation. And the sign of a decent human is a willingness look beyond your own narrow interests. And no one ever died from paying taxes, so let's not get histrionic.
And frankly, your appeal to the founders is poor. They also thought women, blacks, and white men without property shouldn't be allowed to vote; that slavery was okey-dokey; and that genocide was just peachy. Forgive me for not genuflecting to those paragons of progressivism. We learn from the mistakes of our forbears. Or else we used to until we let fear and anti-intellectualism make up our minds for us.
Gull, again you are right. There might be a non-nationalized alternative that is fair and reasonable. I haven't seen it, but I don't know everything. Any suggestions?
I'm saying the sign of an advanced nation is the willingness to provide a decent standard of living for all its citizens regardless of their economic situation. And the sign of a decent human is a willingness look beyond your own narrow interests. And no one ever died from paying taxes, so let's not get histrionic.
And frankly, your appeal to the founders is poor. They also thought women, blacks, and white men without property shouldn't be allowed to vote; that slavery was okey-dokey; and that genocide was just peachy. Forgive me for not genuflecting to those paragons of progressivism. We learn from the mistakes of our forbears. Or else we used to until we let fear and anti-intellectualism make up our minds for us.
Gull, again you are right. There might be a non-nationalized alternative that is fair and reasonable. I haven't seen it, but I don't know everything. Any suggestions?
