Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site qantel.UUCP Path: utzoo!decvax!tektronix!hplabs!qantel!gabor 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 References: <955@umcp-cs.UUCP> <1110@umcp-cs.UUCP> Reply-To: gabor@qantel.UUCP (Gabor Fencsik@ex2642) Distribution: na Organization: MDS Qantel, Hayward, CA Lines: 32 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? ----- Gabor Fencsik {ihnp4,dual,nsc,hplabs,intelca}!qantel!gabor