Our government bureaucracy seems to have some difficulty understanding the difference between and and or. Granted, for the beginning math student it takes some time to really get that distinction. And also the distinction between how they're used in math versus in natural language. However, you'd think it would be easy enough for our great government.
My wife has an advisee at the college where she teaches. This student has several kids and lives in subsidized housing. From all the rhetoric I've heard, this is exactly what everyone wants: a motivated student working hard to put herself through school so she can get a better job, pay taxes, and contribute more to society. This is the kind of person we ought to be encouraging to go to school.
But her financial situation is complicated by this governmental conjunction business. Apparently, she was forced to move from subsidized housing because, the government reasons, if she has the money to go to school, she must have the money to pay rent.
X has enough money for tuition and rent.
Y has enough money for tuition or rent.
See, that's the problem right there. The rules don't seem to acknowledge that Y could possibly exist. But logic dictates that this is surely possible at some level of income. Therefore the only possible conclusion is that the government doesn't understand the difference between the conjunctions. This is clearly just a semantic problem. If someone would be so kind as to explain it to them, I think we can work this problem out to everyone's mutual satisfaction.
I agree because there are other situations where they can't seem to acknowledge that X can exist.
X * 10^9 has enough money for taxes and investment.
Y * 10^9 has enough money for taxes or investment.
Posted by: The Science Pundit | September 02, 2006 at 08:02 AM
Actually, you didn't get the story quite right. Because she could not afford to leave subsidized housing, the student had to reduce her number of credit hours at the university, so that she is not a full-time student. This means it will take her longer to complete her degree--and it will actually cost her more, as well. Meanwhile, she will continue to live in subsidized housing that much longer. Brilliant, eh?
Posted by: Your Wife | September 02, 2006 at 10:36 AM
Our Prez has trouble with these conjunctions, too: he keeps Googling Bush AND good leader when he should be Googling Bush OR good leader.
Posted by: Blacky | September 02, 2006 at 02:19 PM
It's probably simpler than that... somebody in charge of subsidies got told "cut the rolls", so they just added or tightened some semi-arbitrary restrictions. Issues such as program goals or future expenditures were probably not even considered.
Your student naturally responded by gaming the system, which was made that much easier by the mindless nature of the agency's behavior.
Posted by: David Harmon | September 02, 2006 at 02:20 PM
If "or" is the reality - what's wrong with that? Shouldn't rent come first? Or does the nobility of education supercede the obligation to pay your bills?
Posted by: none given | October 27, 2006 at 02:00 AM