The main issue with the public school system is the lack of feedback from the consumer. Taxes for schooling leaves the consumer, i.e. parents, out of the loop. Parents become complacent and in a lot of areas see schools as a daycare. If the parent's money is being spent, there will be a lot more interaction with the school and the child. An open voucher system would be a good way to hold schools accountable. This way the tax dollars would follow the student.

Is there lack of preschools where you live? Usually, the answer is no. Why? There are very few if any tax funded programs for preschools. This allows for a myriad of choices, i.e. price ranges, for consumers. Competing with another business is difficult. Competing with a business which has tax funding and offers the product for "free" is very difficult. The business which is not tax funded must show quality and charge an absorbent amount of money compete with free. Phasing out tax funded schooling would allow private school tuition to normalize over time.

Lastly, grin because you might think this is ridiculous, roll back some child labor laws and mandatory schooling laws. Some people just don't have what it takes to progress further than McDonalds. (Although, I was told at Occupy Portland that "Any one can be a doctor with enough schooling." This gem as well "A garbage man and a surgeon should be paid the same.") Some people also don't have to know more than grade school math and social facts to get through life. This might also open people up to having more children because all I see coming out of a womb is 15 years of my money, your money too if the kid goes to public school, going down the hole.

I have been ranting about a 13 month year to my coworkers for about a year now. 12 months would have 28 days. The last month would have 29 days. Every leap year the last month would have 30 days. A lot of companies would be giving an extra day of vacation every four years.

8a. I think people should be given the option to opt out of Social security (but not the full tax) and it should be illegal for them to be re-admitted later for any reason (including disability). My guess is less than 1% of Americans would even opt out, even the most vocal critics are likely to not opt out.

The government pays out Social Security (SS) benefits based upon how much you paid into the system. You're supposed to be paying for yourself not others. To still require those who opt out to pay into SS is unjust.
 
Would businesses still have to pay the other 7.5% of SS per employee who opted out?
 
OT - Do you find it a bit ridiculous you have to enroll in a federal retirement program (SS) to file your federal taxes?

I read a book about absolute zero. I can't remember the title of the book.
The book had the historical account of Fahrenheit. It went like this:
Originally, the Fahrenheit scale was supposed to be a medical
temperature scale. The research was done with a saline solution.
100 degrees was supposed to be body temperature and 0 degrees was
the temperature at which blood froze. This is why water freezes at the
"arbitrary" temperature of 0 and boils at the "arbitrary" temperature of 212.
The Fahrenheit scale is closer to human perception than the Celsius scale.
        Although once you're used to one scale, it really doesn't matter. For
science, I'm all about the Celsius scale, but for my "what do I wear
in this weather, I like the Fahrenheit scale better. "It's 0F outside my
blood will freeze."

the last time I used a CD or DVD that I hadn't burned myself.
 
I mainly read magazines while in the loo and I'm too worried about getting my phone full of germs.

If they won't directly compensate you, work it into your goals for the new year. Then "slowly" work on the software. Give management a schedule and give releases prior to the dates given. This way you'll always have extra time to figure out your next goal you'll accomplish.

I only suggest this because I don't imagine you have a lot of upward mobility in your department. I have also had that underwhelming feeling when handing over software and not being compensated. Never again.

I agree about the 13 month calendar. The last month should be 29 days. Leap years the last month should be 30 days. It's fairly easy to remember and there would be no fudging of the days. Plus the computer algorithms would be fairly straight forward.

Surprisingly, there would be a lot of people bitching about not getting 3 paychecks in one month. Interest on loans would be more understandable to the common man.

I am overjoyed there is no more sense of shared purpose. Otherwise, I might have been drafted to go to Iraq or Afghanistan or attack the Libyans from afar. This idea that countries must have a purpose or a goal is ridiculous. You'll end up with a state like China, where talking heads decide what the next goal is and then the people blindly follow. And in following that goal, the path is only the vision of the talking heads. When the US was founded, the philosophers who wrote the Constitution didn't talk about how the US was going to be first in education or dominate another country in GDP. The philosophers spoke about a country where each man would be able to follow his passions with in the law. The 13 colonies fought the war of independence for mutual benefit. It's hard to see the benefit in beating other countries in subjective goals.

Oh shit, now I'm rambling, but I hope you get the point.

"This leads to things like Phillip Morris killing people for profit for millions of years, because they did the cost/benefit analysis and realized that in reality they can get away with human life and suffering costing them many orders of magnitude LESS than they should, all because they have the power."

The smokers are to blame for killing themselves. I don't care if their "addicted" to their drug. It's a choice to smoke. The stuff about businesses polluting, I agree.

Is there another term besides corporate that you could use? Maybe business? Does business not have enough insinuation for you?