Cynthia wrote:
>
> Bryan Moss wrote:
>
> > Question: Do parents, the people who would be funding this operation
in the
> > absense of the state, have any serious economic incentives to give their
> > children a good education? I'm saying a big NO.
>
> Of course not. There is nowhere you can buy a good education. The
demand can
> only make itself known when someone brings 'good' education to the
market place.
I had an idea for formalizing the old bit about how debts to parents cannot be paid back, they must be paid forward. Say your parents pay for your education. They formalize this as a loan to you, with interest equal to the rate of inflation of the cost of education. You can't pay it back to them, but every cent you pay in your children's education is deducted from that debt. Thus the individual is given a real incentive (to their credit record) to pay for the ducation of their children. Comments?
Mike Lorrey