Re: [OT] Iraq


"LX-i" <lxi0007@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:bsSdnR8zmIah72HbnZ2dnUVZ_r7inZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Rick Smith wrote:
"LX-i" <lxi0007@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:2ZSdnWoW6pdAimbbnZ2dnUVZ_qGknZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[snip]
But the idea that the "government is the solution" in the first place
is
what boggles my mind.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, ...
That to secure ... rights, governments are instituted among
men. deriving their just powers from the consent of the
governed, ..."

A "revolutionary" idea that probably boggled more than a
few minds, in its day!

Well, sure, take the sentence out of context... :)

Actually, I was adding an omitted, fundamental context,
that of rights. That "to secure rights" "government is the
solution" is fundamental to any discussion on welfarism,
in the U.S. Or, generally, if X is a right, then government
is the solution to secure that right.

Compare
expenditures per student with average test scores, and even a Democrat
should be able to see that private education is a much better investment
than public education.

This is irrelevant to the fundamental question: Is there
a right to education? If the answer is no, then government
should have no direct involvement in education, though
it may be indirectly involved through its authority to
regulate commerce, such as, to prevent fraud. If the
answer is yes, then government involvement in education
is the solution to securing a right to education and
expenditures and test scores are merely complaints
about the particular choices made by some governments.

What has the government done well?

Off-hand, prevention of anarchy comes to mind; but that
may be mostly from my experience. I do hear of riots,
occasionally, and of gangs and "bosses" that operate
outside the law; but, for the most part, anarchy seems
to be absent from the U.S.

Apart from law enforcement and defense, can you think of anything else?

Again, from my experience, most government regulated
or supplied public services that relate to infrastructure:
power, phone, water and sewer, trash collection, roads,
mail, emergency services, etc., seem to function well.

The part that extends into welfarism is where most of my
complaints arise, though I have no specific complaints
regarding public education, perhaps because I had no
children and, as a result of Florida's homestead exemption,
I do not pay any of the ad valorem taxes that are used to
fund public schools, locally. <g>



.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: [OT] Big 3 Bailout
    ... because I have anything against private education, ... any accredited boarding school), I got to make my own choice of private ... They are not political rights. ... of some politician that what they want will be given them by government. ...
    (rec.woodworking)
  • Re: Career change. Am I smoking crack?
    ... to know that there *was* a Bill of Rights, ... it's not hard to guess why a "state" education program ... parts of the bill or rights, other amendments such a the 13th ... It should come as no surprise why our government should wish ...
    (comp.programming)
  • Re: [OT] Big 3 Bailout
    ... I'd argue that public education - if the ... Government has no enumerated power to be in the education business ... The "rights" everyone is trying to vote themselves are not ... that is not the nature of the US Constitution as written and ...
    (rec.woodworking)
  • Re: My last political thread of the year (hopefully)
    ... > Halliburton has been government contracts before Cheney was there ... Iraq)--while the economy and the stock market as a whole market ... education needs to be funded. ... > It is exactly how our nation achieved greatness. ...
    (rec.sport.football.college)
  • Re: [OT] Iraq
    ... That to secure ... ... rights, governments are instituted among ... That "to secure rights" "government is the ... Is there a "right" to health care, to education, to Internet access? ...
    (comp.lang.cobol)