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Politics : Libertarian Discussion Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mama Bear who wrote (2635)	5/7/1999 2:26:00 PM
From: Neocon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13056

There is no consensus for abolition, and, in any case, I would be loathe myself to just try it and see what happened. But it is true that vouchers would provide grounds for complications. I am unsurprised that you understand the "equal access" principle. As far as the uniform issue goes, it is somewhat surprising that there has been no significant litigation about that that I have heard of. I am myself skeptical, but willing to try it in schools with very bad discipline problems....

To: Mama Bear who wrote (2635)	5/7/1999 4:33:00 PM
From: Richard Babusek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13056

As a system architect, I hold a well known view known in my profession, “to err is human, but to really screw things up, you need a system!”. To call something a system as in “health care system” implies an architect. An important tactic of the libs. is to compare things that have little or nothing in common, and call the differences unfair. This is forwarded as evidence that some non existing system is broken, and needs to be fixed. So we wind up with a situation where both parties to the transactions (doctor and patient) have no knowledge or control of the price or cost to provide the service. We can see the genesis of this problem (in my opinion), as in personal income taxes. Years ago (when health care and taxes were both “affordable”) there was a threshold of tax rates which when broached made it worth the effort for employers to offer health insurance in lieu of wages because of the pretax post-tax differential. Many at the time predicted long term deleterious effects of distorting free market principles. Is it possible to elaborate upon those principles in a way that makes them clear? When some cite the “marriage tax penalty”, and others “homophobia” in same sex marriage hysteria, and still others school vouchers they are all involved in the results of tax policy. In a very real way, when we discuss the details of the effects, we are trapped outside of a long term solution unless we keep in mind the root problem. For example if we can not elaborate on the general effects of subsidy, then we are naive about the ultimate results of school vouchers. With that in mind I am still willing to forward vouchers as the lesser of two evils. But I must not abandon the argument against the root cause. Years ago when California sales tax was 6%, I purchased two soft drinks. The clerk asked me for $1.03. I asked if the drinks were taxable or not (there is an exemption for food). The ice tea was food, but the lemonade was a luxury item. “Who decides?”, I ask. “If it's carbonated”, he says. “Neither is carbonated” I respond. “Some lemonade is carbonated, so we are instructed to tax it all - just to be safe” he answers. “Is that your boss's idea?” I wanted to know if someone was just making stuff up. He told me he was the owner, and as a result of an audit, was fined for failure to pay taxes he allegedly withheld on carbonated beverages (he sold a lot of home made lemonade). He was given these detailed guidelines when he protested the fine as ridiculous. Who could come up with such ideas? Does it pay, say, Lipton to lobby for these enlightened discriminations? (Not an accusation). What would be the effects of taxing Pepsi but not Coke? What would be the effects of subsidizing one verses the other? What are the general principles for the results of taxes or subsidies? I think many are unaware of the importance of these topics. They assume taxes and subsidies can be used for the good, without side effects, or that all the long and short term effects can be neatly plotted and predicted. Ricardo