Monique Y. Mudama wrote:
> Sure, poor areas have McDonald's, WalMart, and Dollar Tree. Not so many
> organic food markets and Gucci stores, I think. I guess I could be
> wrong; I haven't extensively toured poor neighborhoods to check.
True, true. But since in a privatized setting the concept of "districts"
doesn't apply the other half of the above would work as well. Sure, there
aren't many organic food markets in poor areas. But what's preventing them
from going to an organic market further away? Nothing. They may feel it is
too expensive, granted. But that isn't preventing them in the same sense that
districts prevent children from being placed in a school further away. So if
they don't like the schools here they can take their business to the schools
there.
>> Here is another concept: you value you what you have to pay for. I
>> know that I am more appreciative of the things which I have had to
>> earn through hard work than of those which were freebies.
> There's certainly a point to this. My high school martial arts
> instructor was adamant that he didn't give financial need based
> discounts, because his experience was that people didn't value the
> experience as much if they felt it was discounted.
There's also an economic concept based around this. I forget the exact
name but it is something like the "rule of commons" or something similar. It
basically states that when people are given property for free they have no
incentive to maintain that property since they also lose nothing if it isn't
maintained. It's an explination on why low-income/free housing is almost
always run down while property that was bought at full market value tends to
be better maintained.
> But as you've pointed out (or was it someone else? Too many people
> ... ), people *do* pay for education. Or do you think the kids should
> pay for it themselves? Hrm, interesting thought ...
Actually this is another problem. People often see public education as
free. They don't associate the cost with the taxes they (may be) paying.
This goes even further. Withholdings are another disconnect. People often
say "Oh, we should do this" with little to no concept of cost. Many people
speak only in terms of what they take home and what they got back. They have
no clue how much is withheld every week and how much they paid in at the end
of the year. How can one really have a connection of cost, a sense of
ownership, when one never sees the cost and thinks they're getting money
instead of losing it? :(
--
Steve C. Lamb | But who decides what they dream?
PGP Key: 8B6E99C5 | And dream I do...
-------------------------------+---------------------------------------------
Attachment:
signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature