I'm so behind here that maybe no one is talking any more about public schools and whether everyone should be taxed, whether they have children in the schools or not or send their children to private schools. But I was thinking today about other things for which people are taxed but may not use, but which no one is suggesting should be supported solely by their users, because we want our society to be a certain way, and we all chip in to make it that way, and we get more than our share of some of the benefits purchased from the common pool, and pay for more than our share for some of the others.
I was making myself laugh by imagining the hydrophobes demanding exemption for contributing to community pools and lifeguards at public beaches, and fanatic recyclers angry at their garbage collection bills, and the sighted angry at subsidizing braille, and the non smokers angry about funding the subsidies to tobacco farmers and healthcare for smoking-related illnesses, and atheists angry at funding military chaplains (and the ones in Congress, too), and Jehovah's Witnesses angry at any expenses associated with blood products, and the tone deaf angry at the cost of the military bands, and opponents of capital punishment angry at the high cost of that process, and the very neat angry at having to contribute to litter removal, and those who mail two letters a year and get one angry about their taxes subsidizing the junk mail delivered by the post office, and pacifists angry about the military budget and... well, there are just a LOT of things paid for out of the common pot, though schools are a big item; and I was thinking that maybe if one gets less out of the public school than the average person does, maybe one gets more than the average out of another of the benefits of our first world arrangements.
Ish would have to get a lot of benefit out of something to make up for his $8,000. school taxes, though. |
