Re: Reforming Education

Bryan Moss (bryan.moss@dial.pipex.com)
Sun, 10 Oct 1999 15:41:52 +0100

Dan Fabulich wrote:

> The fact of the matter is that raising children makes people happy, in a
> similar way that buying a piece of candy makes people happy. You don't
> buy candy because you expect to be paid back for it later; you buy candy
> because you want that sweet taste in your mouth, and that sweet taste
> makes you happy. Similarly, people don't raise children on the
> presumption that they'll get paid for it; they raise children because
> raising children, and paying for it, makes them happy.

More specifically we were talking about educating children. Most people do not send their children to school, most children are sent to school by the government. Whether this makes a parent happy or not I do not know. The idea that the average person can afford to send their child to school to simply make themselves feel happy is false.

> Bringing in the state to provide financial incentives for parents to raise
> their children well is misguided at best and extortionary at worst.

Maybe I wasn't quite clear on this point, I'm talking about private education in the absense of any sort of state funding. The money paid for the childs education would be an investment and the return on that investment would be based on the childs future earnings.

BM