Comments | magus341: Public or Private? (Hint: trick question!)

magus341

Public or Private? (Hint: trick question!)

May 18, 2010 23:49

This meme hit the tubes a long time ago. Libertarians countered with their take on the alarm clock story. Both sides are missing the point. Societies need both violent and voluntary orders to survive. A society with only peaceful organizations would be conquered by outside forces (no military) and not be able to enforce property rights, since ( Read more... )

Comments 9

anailia May 19 2010, 13:45:05 UTC

Private schools can and do compete against the public schools, mr loyola grad ; )

magus341 May 20 2010, 02:33:25 UTC

They do. The only problem is that those who chose private schools must pay for both. Should someone buying a McDonald's hamburger be required to pay the price of a Burger King one as well? I think there should be a subsidy for basic education, and I also think local governments should be allowed to provide schooling, I'm just against double payment.

anailia May 20 2010, 16:01:09 UTC

Then you would be pro-voucher.

Of course you can argue, as do the Germans, that forcing everyone into the same schooling system provides social cohesiveness and a kind of forced social equality that is necessary for social bonds and the kind of shared morality/values systems that produce stable societies ; )

magus341 May 23 2010, 06:52:49 UTC

I do not believe public schooling creates the kind of "social equality" its proponents claim. Schooling is done mostly on a state or local level, and public school are highly unequal. DC public schools are not even comparable to Maryland or Virginia public schools. I think that vouchers would make schooling more equal by giving poor people the means to chose their school.

I think that even private or charter schools could be required to teach a class about citizenship that the government could provide the curriculum to. Introducing choice and accountability into the school system is very important IMO.

anailia May 19 2010, 13:47:56 UTC

How do you feel about government trustbusting? In periods of stability relative political economic and social stability, I have a theory that monopolies tend to come about and wealth tends to stratify. Case in point--it took WW2 to even out the economic strata in the 50s--the poor got richer and the rich got poorer. But it doesn't last.

Brian feels that the stratification/inheritence of wealth is bad and the government should take steps to prevent it like the ridiculous inheritance taxes we have (60%+ for high earning individuals). I disagree. How do you feel?

magus341 May 20 2010, 03:25:11 UTC

The Sherman anti-trust Act has two parts. The first part says that ( ... )

psyllogism May 19 2010, 15:55:36 UTC

You should do a post on public goods. Looks like an interesting topic :-)

magus341 May 20 2010, 02:35:24 UTC

I should. I'll add it to the list. I have 2 essays half done that I think I'll finish first. I had one about freedom, but it got really long. I might break it up.

(The comment has been removed)

magus341 May 23 2010, 08:54:43 UTC

Your comment was very thought provoking. When I wrote that, I was thinking of goods, in the sense of physical objects or services, not really the legal framework. The U.S. Constitution provides for equal protection under the law. The most important role of government, in my opinion, is defining the structure of property rights and contract enforcement. I don't have any philosophical opposition to laws requiring companies to treat people equally when they are hiring ( ... )