[ale] unusual global warming experiment

[JK]

On 2/11/2010 9:26 AM, Preston Boyington wrote:
> JK wrote:
>> You don't think people in Douglasville would benefit from an overall
>> increase in the quality of life in the ATL metro area?  Less-crowded
>> roads (whether they're using them to commute or just to play), less
>> pollution, more greenspace?
>
> the simple solution would be to ask them.  have the people vote on it.
> most proponents of a plan like this wouldn't like the idea though.


I'd say, go for it.  Let them vote for representatives who will
work in their interests.  And put in place measures (such as campaign
finance reform) that ensure that those representatives actually do
work in the interests of their constituents (which, notably, include
ALL the residents of their districts, not just the ones that voted for
them).

These are not easy questions, and I certainly don't have all the
answers.  However, it seems to me that referenda are often tantamount
to mob rule.  And truth in political advertising is a rare commodity.


>> Do you also think that it's unfair to fund education from the general
>> pool of property taxes  -- that parents should pay directly for their
>> own kids' education, because obviously educating kids benefits no one
>> but the kids?
>
> so are we speaking about the funded education that has teachers
> purchasing their own classroom supplies and graduation exam standards
> being lowered?
>
> i work overtime and an extra job just so i can send my daughter to a
> private school.  the curriculum there is far more than offered in the
> public school, so are you slighting me for doing this?


No, I'm not slighting you, and I don't want to get into the subject
of inequalities in public-school funding, which have well-documented
causes.  (Teachers in districts with high property values usually
don't have the kinds of problems you cite.)  I'll point out, though,
that your response did not address the substance of my question, which
was (to be more direct and less snarky): do you or do you not agree
that education is a general good that ought to be funded by society,
because it benefits everyone, either directly or indirectly? (Setting
aside the fact that it's also constitutionally mandated in the US.)


>     I guess we should all be responsible for our own
>> fire-management too -- I've never used the fire department, why
>> should I have to pay for it?</snark>
>
> many places have community based volunteer fire departments that are
> very good.


And they are funded how? I mean, who pays for the $2M pumper trucks
and so forth?


>> The no-government-no-taxes folks should try living in my close neighbor
>> city, Cd Juarez Chihuahua, for a taste of what it's like when government
>> services are slim to non-existent; and those that exist, endemically
>> corrupted by free-market forces.  It is not at all a nice place.
>>
>
> corruption is not limited to free-market.


Perhaps not.  I'm not quite sure what to make of that statement.  In
the case of CdJuarez, though, money moving from free-market agents into
the hands of public-sector employees is a huge factor in the breakdown
of civil society.  I have a friend whose sister-in-law was kidnapped in
CDJ a couple weeks ago, and the kidnappers have been extorting money
from her family ever since.  It is fairly likely (though this has not
been established in this particular case) that some of the kidnappers
are members of the CDJ police force who, because they cannot earn a
living wage doing their actual job of keeping the population SAFE
from predatory criminal activity, accept lucrative night jobs working
for "kidnapping cartels".  This is not science fiction, it is day-to-day
life in northern Mexico.  A libertarian paradise.

Disclaimer: IANAL, etc.  Also I have work to do, so this will be my
last post in this thread today; I find this kind of dialog exhausting.
The last word is yours, should you choose to say it.

-- JK


-- 
We Americans are a freedom-loving people, and nothing says "freedom"
like Getting Away With It. -- Guy Forsyth, "Long Long Time"