Quote:
Originally Posted by WaspStar
I don't think any body (government or otherwise) has any inherent "rights," but semantics aside, I think it's just common sense that high earners should be taxed more than low earners. 1% (or 2, or 5) might make the difference between paying the bills to someone making $15,000 a year; it's not quite that important to a person making $200,000 a year. A flat rate would work the same way.
And as far as the education question goes, I don't think the problem is simply due to a lack of funding (which is certainly a contributing factor), but down to the faulty methods used (i.e., rote memorization instead of creative thought, passing tests emphasized over de facto application of knowledge, etc). Whether a private system would solve these problems is open to debate, but I have very little faith in it. I would suspect that the sorry state of our schools would continue and possibly worsen.
In my opinion, giving businesses free reign is possibly the worst solution to our problems. Would you like to see 18+ hour workdays? Child labor? Unsanitary workplaces (and unsanitary foods)? Even aside from those extremes, monopolies would become even more of a problem and the interests of actual human beings (a factor that's frequently ignored in many economic discussions) would be outweighed by the allure of profit, even moreso than now. Putting the economy in the hands of the government might not be the perfect solution, but at least we have the power to throw our elected officials out of office if need be. (That raises the issue of our hopelessly misguided voting system, but let's not get into that).
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Wow, no one is allowed to call me cynical anymore. Wasp you don't trust people at all?
First the money, 1% is the same to everyone. That's why you use a percentage based system. the more money you make typically the bigger your egg gets, on other words the more bills\expenses you have. So yeah a flat tax is most fair.
As far as child labor and 18 hour work days etc. The free market takes care of that. People have the right to stop working under those conditions or stop buying th product. Right now if there are any existing monopolies they are the probably the oil companies which are government subsidized. I'm not for complete free reign, but the less government intervention the better. I don't think people are nearly as inherently greedy as you presume. Besides that your logic is counterintuitive. Under the current system politicians make a very average salary, this leads them to make or support legislation based on bribes from lobbyists. If you take government regulation out of the picture people will make more money across the board and be less tempted to take bribes.
But mostly the question of education. Look at private schools\public schools and the graduation rates\success of students beyond. Private funding allows teachers\parents\administrators to put money towards what the school needs most instead of having to buy certain items to meet federal or state curriculum's. You're right to be critical of methods of teaching, a more hands on practical approach to the application of knowledge is a great way to improve retention and enthusiasm about learning but is stifled in the public schools because of standard testing which is the archaic measuring stick used by the government to hold public schools accountable. Undermining the individuality of students and ignoring the diversity inn relation to the varying backgrounds and aspirations of each student.