Re: OT: Politics [Was:Social Contract]
On 2006-04-30, Christopher Nelson penned:
> On Sat, Apr 29, 2006 at 09:43:35PM -0400, Roberto C. Sanchez wrote:
>
>> Besides, why is it my job to *guarantee* that you can send your
>> children to school for free? If you can't afford to raise them,
>> then don't have them. Really, why should I pay taxes for education
>> my entire life when kids only go to school for 12-16 years?
>
> The same reason you should pay taxes for roads you don't drive
> on--because at all stages of life having an educated workforce
> benifits you, just as it benifits you for people (eg utility
> companies) to drive on roads you particularly don't use. Or would
> you rather not pay your doctor to pass high school anatomy and
> biology?
It's a sad reality that not all adults are responsible. Add to this the
fact that most teens aren't fully responsible, and that there is a huge
stigma to abortion, and that one half of the parental equation sometimes
skips out or is such a bad influence that they actually need to be
removed from the child's life, and people who have children without
being financially prepared are simply a reality, not something we can
wish away with ideas like, "If you can't afford to raise them, don't
have them."
So it's a reality that there will be kids whose parents can't afford
to pay for education. Now, here in the US, those kids will eventually
be able to vote. I do feel that I benefit from a voting public that
has at least a high school education. I also feel that, in an
environment where a good general education is strongly tied to income
(vocational schools don't seem nearly as popular here as in Europe,
and their students don't seem to be nearly as respected), I don't want
a large fraction of the population to be impoverished. I have visions
of "Let them eat cake!" followed by guillotines.
As for me, I attended public schools throughout my education. They
did d*mn well by me. I'll grant that I went to a high school that
routinely ranks in the top of schools nationwide, and furthermore that
I was lucky in that I was in the accelerated track, which tends to
draw highly motivated teachers, but in any case, I don't feel I missed
out by getting a public school education. I do wish everyone had
access to the kinds of teachers I had in high school.
--
monique
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