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From: gabor@qantel.UUCP (Gabor Fencsik@ex2642)
Newsgroups: net.politics.theory
Subject: Re: Newsflash! [Subsidized Education]
Message-ID: <500@qantel.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 7-Aug-85 04:15:37 EDT
Article-I.D.: qantel.500
Posted: Wed Aug  7 04:15:37 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 10-Aug-85 00:08:19 EDT
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Reply-To: gabor@qantel.UUCP (Gabor Fencsik@ex2642)
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Organization: MDS Qantel, Hayward, CA
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Xref: tektronix net.politics.theory:00979 

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
| Paul V Torek, following DKMcK's teachings, announces he is embracing
| the libertarian position against subsidized education because 
| 'the externalities involved are too minor and hard to identify'.
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------

You do not state your criteria for deciding when subsidies are legitimate 
so it is hard to reconstruct the reasoning you are echoing here.
I'll assume for the sake of argument that you support compulsory education
at, say, the grade school level. [If not, please disregard the rest of this
posting - but then you have to explain how illiterates will enter into
the voluntary contracts that are the lifeblood of Libertaria.]

So a child's compulsory education is now part of the cost of parenthood
just as complying with the smog laws is part of the cost of owning a car
in California. If I can't pay for installing the smog gizmo, I can't keep
the car. What is the legal sanction against parents who are unable to
pay for the legally required education? Fines? Jail? Impounding the kids?

At this point I conclude that, at the minimum, school vouchers to cover 
elementary education are inevitable even in the most orthodox Libertaria.
Universities and vocational schools are outside the scope of this argument.

> Education makes better voters, I think, but McKiernan disagreed (which 
> shows, I guess, how subjective that judgement is); and besides, democracy
> wouldn't exist in Libertaria either (except in voluntary organizations).

I am speechless.  Are you prepared to defend this piece of wisdom or
do I have to seek enlightenment from DKMcK himself?

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Gabor Fencsik               {ihnp4,dual,nsc,hplabs,intelca}!qantel!gabor