[Info-vax] Nice printers for OpenVMS?

[Bob Koehler]

In article <jvtu3j$ogg$1 at dont-email.me>, David Froble <davef at tsoft-inc.com> writes:
> 
> I know that the matter of "choice" is in this somewhere, but, do you really feel 
> that a society where some kids have a better start than others is a good thing? 
>   Wouldn't it be better if every child had the opportunity of getting a good 
> education, and going as far as his/her abilities allowed?

   Yes, I would vastly prefer that all public schools be as good as the
   ones my children had.  But in reality they are not, so there is
   choice.  There are too many politicians who think thier jobs is to
   get re-elected by reducing taxes, or by throwing money at problems without
   actually fixing them, and not enough that think they should actually
   know something about fixing the problems and acting on that.

   It would be great if we could somehow establish that only people who
   could do the job could run for office, but I wouldn't trust anyone
   to make that judgement.

> 
> As for property taxes on your home, this is a terrible idea.  You are assessed 
> taxes not on what you can afford to pay, but on what you own.  Makes it so that 
> you don't really own your home, you just rent it, and the day when you cannot 
> afford the rent you're kicked out.  I'm aware that the money to pay for services 
> has to come from somewhere, and that most likely it will never be entire fair. 
> Regardless, some type of tax on consumption, such as many other countries have, 
> would be much better.

   There are progressive taxes and regressive taxes.  Paying for public
   education based on property values is bad.  Paying for it based on
   gambling is worse.  Not paying for it is worst.