Re: you're not funding *that* with *my* taxes!

John Clark (jonkc@worldnet.att.net)
Thu, 12 Nov 1998 13:21:48 -0500

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Damien Broderick <damien@ariel.ucs.unimelb.edu.au>

>I've always been rather taken aback by this wounded cry.

Being forced to pay for something you detest will cause resentment in some, I really don't see what's surprising about that.

>Those who utter it seem unaware that in a pluralistic western society,
>a vast array of different and possibly antagonistic interests are supported
>out of consolidated revenues (tax, in brief) which are gathered from most
>of the working (or at any rate income-earning) population of different and
>possibly antagonistic people.

I humbly submit that they are not unaware of that, they know it all too well and is precisely the reason you hear their wounded cry. Mine too. The fact that part of my tax money goes to subsidies tobacco farmers and help them increase production makes me unhappy, the fact that another part of my tax money goes to subsides television advertisements to get people to stop using tobacco does not cheer me up.

>given that state-funded education is common, I can't see any just way to
>avoid allowing groups to choose how to deploy the chunk of the education
>dollars they pay in.

I agree completely. It would be much better if government would just get out the of education business entirely but I'll take what I can get, school vouchers would be better than the system we have now.

John K Clark jonkc@att.net

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