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From: arnold@ucbvax.ARPA (Kenneth C R C Arnold)
Newsgroups: net.politics,net.religion
Subject: Re: "Secular Humanism" banned in the US Schools.
Message-ID: <10395@ucbvax.ARPA>
Date: Mon, 16-Sep-85 01:47:30 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.10395
Posted: Mon Sep 16 01:47:30 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 17-Sep-85 06:20:35 EDT
References: <1072@ulysses.UUCP> <607@hou2g.UUCP> <5847@cbscc.UUCP> <673@utastro.UUCP> <5878@cbscc.UUCP>
Reply-To: arnold@ucbvax.UUCP (Kenneth C R C Arnold)
Organization: University of California at Berkeley
Lines: 28
Keywords: Taxes
Xref: watmath net.politics:11023 net.religion:7658

In article <5878@cbscc.UUCP> pmd@cbscc.UUCP (Paul Dubuc) writes:
>In article <673@utastro.UUCP> padraig@utastro.UUCP (Padraig Houlahan) writes:
>>
>>I thought religions were already being helped financially - don't
>>they get tax breaks?
>
>This is really irrelevant to the issue at hand since public schools
>don't pay taxes either.  Private schools have to charge tuition.
>Parents paying this tuition must also pay taxes to support the public
>schools.  (This is the argument for tuition tax credits.)

And I suppose we should give rebates to people who don't have children
at all, since they are taxed for a service they don't receive?  If not,
why not?

Of course, I have a reason myself why I think why not.  I think that
society at large gets real, substantial benefits from a generally
educated citizenry.  Public school taxes make this benefit possible,
and thus are payed for the same reason you pay other taxes -- because
society at large, and thus you, (allegedly) benefit from the service,
and it could not be efficiently or properly provided any other way.
The fact that someone might have children they choose to educate some
other way is just as irrelevant to this as someone who has no
children.

If this isn't your reasoning, what is?  Why not give rebates to the
childless?
		Ken Arnold