Then you would know all about the negative externalities that private businesses produce, and that the most economic growth is not from growth in capital or labor, but total factor productivity. You would also be aware that high GDP/capita are strongly correlated with education and infrastructure.
As well as positive externalities, such as technological advancement and the development of human capital. Can you remind me, what are the greatest factors in world-wide economic growth over the last century? Are you asserting that such can only be provided through government? ~Raithere
Technology and investment in human capital. Tell me, where did Americans get the majority of their education? Did they pay for it, or did a handful of wealthy elites pay for it? I am asserting that such a provision from government is more beneficial to an economy in the long run than a handful of people only being able to afford education.
Presently the majority of Americans are publicly educated... can't you tell? The government does such an exemplary job of it. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! So your asserting that private education is necessarily more expensive than public education? My reply is that it is not. Private education tends to be more expensive primarily because some people are willing to pay more for higher quality or at least what they perceive as higher quality. It would also be less expensive if it were taxed less. Not to mention that more people would be able to afford it if they didn't have to pay for public education that they were not using. I would be quite willing to bet that dollar for dollar the return on educational investment is greater in the private arena. ~Raithere
private schools do receive government funding here. for some reason the government feels the need to pay these schools money so that they can bulid more chapels and bible classes. if they want to be exempt from government guidelines on teaching religion then they can pay for it themselves. the government should not be paying to brainwash people.
I concur. Some of that goes on here too but they try to be careful of it (or it tends to get resolved in court). Assistance for rebuilding after Katrina. Funds might be given for textbooks but not hymnals. Things like that. ~Raithere
Actually, about one third of your federal tax money goes into the pockets of twelve or thirteen layers of bureaucrats who spend their entire day "administering" each other. The federal government has 1.5 million civilian employees, not counting the 850,000 who work for the postal service and actually accomplish something, nor the 2 million military personnel who get credit for working pretty hard these days even if I don't believe in their mission. There are another five million "shadow" jobs in federal contracts and another five million state and municipal employees. Add in government grants and all the other forms of "work" that run on your tax dollars, and we've got seventeen million feeders at the public trough. Another one third of your federal tax money goes for current military expenditures, and another 20% chunk goes to retired military personnel in pensions, medical care, etc. Half of your federal taxes are spent on war. One third is spent on bureaucrats' salaries. State and local taxes don't pay for war but they pay the salary of more employees than the federal government has. That doesn't really leave much to distribute to the poor or to anybody else.
You are complaining about tax money going to the poor, yet you say nothing about where the majority of it goes. Right into the hands of the rich. Capitalism is just as much if not moreso idiotic as communism. You are bias against poor people who have done no wrong. There is no obligation for anybody to get a job or work or participate in a system that leeches off of the labor of the poor. Competative markets don't work. Privatising only puts more money into the hands of the rich. It is not the responsibility of private companies to provide for society. Private companies play one function in society. Suck it dry. Perhaps you believe that poverty is caused by laziness, and not by the rich who take advantage of the poor. The attitudes expressed in this thread are in no way realistic or even worth taking seriously. If you want to complain about tax money, target the real enemy. The rich. You complaining about poor people getting money or so called, lazy people makes absolutely no sense. It is impossible for poor people to leech off of anybody. They are poor. It doesn't matter how lazy they are or what their personality is. They are not rich, so you have no right to tell them to go be a slave to society just like yourself. It's nothing more than the crab in the net. When crabs get trapped in the box, the hole at the top is left open. Trappers know that crabs cannot escape because as soon as one crab tries to crawl out, the rest of you idiots in the working class, pull them back in so they can be in the trap with yout. Sometimes the crabs will tear their limbs off or even kill them. All you are doing is complaining about the poor being lazy leeches so you can get them to join you in your hell bound trap of wokrking all your life so that all your earnings can get taxed for the sake of making the rich richer.
