Another fine econ 101 video from the Center for Freedom and Prosperity.  That government monopolies like the post office and public schools deliver inferior service at greatly inflated cost is as well established as any fact can be this side of Eternity. The mystery to me is why we still keep making this fundamental mistake of assuming that a government monopoly is necessary rather than looking into new measures to reach the goal sought. The faith in government, especially on the political Left, is as charming in its naivety as it is irrational.
The last century was often a long sad failure to heed the warnings of Rudyard Kipling in his poem The Gods of the Copybook Headings. I hope this century will not repeat this inability to learn some very simple lessons about the limits of both government and wishful thinking.
That government monopolies like the post office and public schools deliver inferior service at greatly inflated cost is as well established as any fact can be this side of Eternity.
I suppose that is why you and your Tea Party demanded government keep its hands off people’s Medicare.
That Obamacare is a dagger pointed at Medicare MZ is something that anyone with two brain cells to rub together could see. That Medicare is also bankrupt is obvious. Makes the prediction of this guy rather prescient:
I’m not a Tea Partier, nor do I wish the government to keep its hands off Medicare. Medicare is a government program and I wish they would do a better job of administering it.
Even Obamacare isn’t a government monopoly. It may be bad or doomed to fail from the start (by design?) and lead to a government monopoly of health care, but it isn’t one as currently constituted.
What about government monopolies like the police, courts, and military?
In regard to courts restrainedradical, alternative dispute resolution is all the rage in Illinois to relieve crowded court dockets. Mediation with a private mediator is required in all cases involving kids.
As to police, private security firms are booming because the police in most communities are unable to protect the citizenry.
In regard to the military, that is one of the few areas in which a government monopoly is warranted, since Letters of Marque and Reprisal to private citizens are just not of much utility in modern warfare.
What wrong with private military companies like Blackwater?
Funny video. Difference between public and private schools is not the cost but the care of the parent(s) for their children. If you agree to pay for your child’s education in either time, homeschooling, or in tuition, private school, you are vested in the outcome. You care enough to get involved in more then just going to a sporting event that your child is taking part in.
It is not about the money, it is about the family. So vouchers for terrible parents is a horrendous idea. Too bad you are so far off the mark, but keep the comedy coming. It is fun to watch general lies told by nice pretty people.
How about next film you use the Joker from Batman? That would be more entertaining.
Too bad you are so far off the mark, but keep the comedy coming.
What is truly funny Steve Zero are people who try to make excuses for truly rotten schools by blaming bad parents. Bad parents didn’t simply magically appear circa 1975, but somehow schools before that time often produced successful students who were cursed with bad parents. Family breakdown is a problem in our society but abysmal public schools do not help the situation.
By Steve’s reasoning people who can’t afford private schools or to have a parent staying home to teach are by default bad parents. Their children should be foresaken to the ghetto of piss-poor public schools. Not only is that wrong-headed, it’s sickening.
Steve,
That’s a nice bit of water carrying for the Ruling Class – don’t pay any attention to non-government results! They don’t matter! Just keep shoveling money at the government, we promise we’ll get it right…and when is that new security gate going to be installed around the homes of the elite to keep the public school graduates out?
The problem with public schools lies in the fact of their “free and compulsory” nature. Every parent should pay at least a nominal, direct fee for the education of their children – and should be allowed to send their child to whatever school they choose and will accept the child. No child should be compelled to attend school after about the 5th grade.
Do that, and all education problems will resolve themselves.
Having dealt some with students in the public school, all the factors are relevant. Poor environments, over-worked or lazy parents, disinterested teachers, etc. There isn’t one magical factor that can turn around public schools; a foundational and gradual change is necessary.
I see it in terms of THEM feverishly foisting on US a command economy/central planning bureaucracy to allocate (ration) limited resources among relatively unlimited needs/desires.
[…] HAT TIP: The American Catholic […]
so vouchers for terrible parents are a horrendous idea
SteveO, why not answer three questions to clarify your own thinking and our understanding of it.
1. What proportion of parents are ‘terrible’?
2. Why should the selections of non-terrible parents be constrained by the incapacities of the terrible parents?
3. What criteria do you fancy ‘terrible’ parents will use to select schools?
4. If the ‘terrible’ parents select for convenience of commuting, how does that leave the aggregate set of selections worse than it is now, given that people are compelled to make use of geographically proximate schools?
I suppose that is why you and your Tea Party demanded government keep its hands off people’s Medicare.
Other than positing the Democratic Congressional caucus’ 1,000+ page bill will generate a state of the world worse than the one we now have, just who among those you usually tangle with says Medicare is untouchable?
Dodd, Frank, Obama, Pelosi, Reid must – commoin good – control the economy and install command economy/central planning because the majority are racists, christianist terrorists, or NASCAR-loving retards who are too stupid to know what’s good for them.
Plus, once the people are reduced to an equal level of dependency and desperation (Obamacare prophecy: before 90% were well-insured; after 100% harmed by government-controlled health) and they are disarmed, it will be easier to control them.
T. Shaw,
That sounds kooky. I will give you this, though. I have stopped believing Paul Krugman and Joseph Stiglitz have been transparent about their aims and motives. Neither is an obscure figure in the economics profession. ‘Tis disconcerting.
I’m a kook. Sadly, I’m not alone.
Krugman . . . I wonder what he calls the planet on which he lives.
Another attempt to help Steve0 think clearly.
“If you agree to pay for your child’s education in either time, homeschooling, or in tuition, private school, you are vested in the outcome.”
Many low-income (terrible?) parents cannot afford a significant financial investment in their child’s education.
However, if they could CHOOSE the school where their child attends, then they could make an investment in that particular school that is much more valuable than money.
They would have the opportunity to invest THEIR CHILD in that school. They will work hard to make sure that investment is successful.