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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: daryll40 who wrote (43102)	3/5/2001 3:55:02 PM
From: Fred Levine	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 70976

Daryll-- Your demonizing government workers is somewhat ingenuous. Certainly Govt is inefficient-- I was on the faculty of a State University and we were instructed to spend at the end of each fiscal year or have the next budget cut. It was inexcusable waste. However, I also volunteered for a Catholic Hospital and quit when they demanded that I refer youngsters into an enormously expensive prelanguage program when I both knew that the youngsters didn't need the program and that the research showed that their program was slightly worse in language development than staying at home. Speech therapy had been taken over by the schools and the speech department would go out of business without the unnecessary program. Despite the data indicating otherwise, these people worked hard and believed they were performing a service. People are motivated by self-interest in both the private and public sector. After all, they belong to the same species and culture. I have also seen formidable volunteerism in the government sector. How many private charities use the bulk of their money for their own expenses and salaries? The brush you use is too broad and not analytic. I am sure that many share my experiences. In addition, many of the state taxes are very regressive. For example, what percentage of their income do the poor vs. the rich pay on sin taxes of tobacco and alcohol. The working poor can't save and are hit by sales tax on their entire income.We need many public services. I'm glad that we're not privatizing flight controllers, as they may do in the UK. Finally, the McCarthy attack on Jerome was scandalous and reprehensible. The essence of a democracy is dissent. Please respect that. fred