tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10333247.post112175605603447455..comments2024-01-07T05:17:58.943-05:00Comments on Orthoprax: School is TaxingOrthopraxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11649055168953784384noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10333247.post-1135963769364587412005-12-30T12:29:00.000-05:002005-12-30T12:29:00.000-05:00Hi there Orthoprax ! Great post you got here. I wa...Hi there Orthoprax ! Great post you got here. I was out searching for the latest information on <A HREF="http://epimesa.blogspot.com" REL="nofollow">Giving Away Money</A> and found your site. Although this post wasn't exactly what I was lookiing for, it certainly got my attention and interest. I found your page when I was looking for Giving Away Money related information. Check out our site as well. You'll find links to our business sites. Thanks for the read! Best regards, Rose and DanielAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10333247.post-1122319231919570692005-07-25T15:20:00.000-04:002005-07-25T15:20:00.000-04:00Enigma,Not quite, he appears to believe that it is...Enigma,<BR/><BR/>Not quite, he appears to believe that it is best if the government pays for religious studies as well. I am a strict church(synagogue) and state separater.<BR/><BR/>But his agreement with my point of view doesn't effect the rightness or wrongness of the opinion. I may disagree with the way he came to his view but that's not uncommon.Orthopraxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11649055168953784384noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10333247.post-1121805043563126882005-07-19T16:30:00.000-04:002005-07-19T16:30:00.000-04:00As far as I'm concerned, the public school system ...As far as I'm concerned, the public school system as it exists today is mostly a failure. If schooling were to become completely privatized I would not shed many tears.<BR/><BR/>The extreme bureaucracy and waste that goes on at every level of public education is incredible.<BR/><BR/>But these private schools would have to be non-profit businesses, that way the poorest people would still be able to go and receive scholarships for study. That's the way yeshivahs work today.Orthopraxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11649055168953784384noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10333247.post-1121799524227164422005-07-19T14:58:00.000-04:002005-07-19T14:58:00.000-04:00That's a good point.You'd still be left with the p...That's a good point.<BR/><BR/>You'd still be left with the problem of even greater rich flight from the public schools. As it is, most of the very rich already attend private schools. With vouchers, more and more of the upper-middle, middle-, and even lower-middle classes will send their kids to private schools while the poor will be stuck with ever worsening public schools. Even if schools have as much money per capita as they do now, with all of the upper- and middle-class students gone, there would be much less incentive for those people in power (i.e. rich people) to improve the public schools. It's not just money.Jewish Atheisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04616617537150446818noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10333247.post-1121798689486327062005-07-19T14:44:00.000-04:002005-07-19T14:44:00.000-04:00JA,"It's in the country's best interest to educate...JA,<BR/><BR/>"It's in the country's best interest to educate everybody. That's why taxes pay for everybody's education, not just your kid's. It's like highways or scientific research."<BR/><BR/>It's like those things, but it's not quite. It is true that education for all is good for society as a whole but what does the state care where or how you educate your child? <BR/><BR/>Putting your child in public school costs the state money. It's another student to educate. So the money you pay in tax is effectively being returned to you. But by taking your child out of public school, you are then saving the state money.<BR/><BR/>That "saved" money is not a gift. It was money that was supposed to be used for the education of your child. The state is then neither losing or gaining funding for education by giving you back the money they would have to be giving you anyway through educating your child.<BR/><BR/>In New York City, I think a recent figure has it costing per capita $4,300 or so per student per year. Put some of that towards public school infrastructure, sure, but whatever it costs to educate one student - that should be returned to parents of schoolchildren because that would have been returned _anyway._Orthopraxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11649055168953784384noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10333247.post-1121792081476663332005-07-19T12:54:00.000-04:002005-07-19T12:54:00.000-04:00It's in the country's best interest to educate eve...It's in the country's best interest to educate everybody. That's why taxes pay for everybody's education, not just your kid's. It's like highways or scientific research.<BR/><BR/>Imagine parents of a kid with a very rare disease. A portion of their taxes goes towards scientific research at the discretion of the federal government, but they would like to keep their tax money and instead use it for research on the rare disease. Instead of many people benefitting from the money, only their kid would. <BR/><BR/>One could easily argue that this is fair. I suppose it gets to the whole issue of taxation -- should each person spend his money how he wants or do we have an obligation as Americans to pool our resources and try to do the most good for as many people as possible? I don't think either answer is right or wrong. On the one hand, taxes are taken involuntarily, and on the other, more good comes of it, at least in theory.<BR/><BR/>Try to imagine what the results would be if people could allocate their money instead of giving it as taxes. The rich would gain a disproportionate amount of the benefits, since they are in command of more dollars. There would be little money going towards meeting the poor's educational needs and as a result, the poor children would receive an even worse education than they do now, widening the educational gap between them and the rich. There would be much less research on health problems which disproportionately affect the poor. Similarly, highways between rich areas would be great, while roads in poor and rural areas would be even worse. Police protection would be extreme in rich neighborhoods and non-existent in poor ones.<BR/><BR/>We already suffer to an extent from a lot of these problems, but they would only increase if people had more discretion as to where their tax dollars went.<BR/><BR/>On the plus side, I have trouble imagining people earmarking their taxes for war, so maybe wars would go down.Jewish Atheisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04616617537150446818noreply@blogger.com