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Comment Re:Texas Barely Registers (Score 1) 544

The key in the case of vouchers is that public funds are being spent by the public. While you may disagree with what is being taught, as long as they meet the standards of the state's education, these schools should continue to receive those funds. Dictating what religious values they may or may not teach would itself be a an establishment of religion.

The kids don't belong to the government and the money doesn't belong to the government. Let the crazies teach what they want to teach.

Comment Re:Dispute - not often at all (Score 1) 510

Additionally:

I paid more for my car because of airbags. Because of them, I can't seat a kid in the front seat. "The back seat is the safest place for a kid to sit" you say? It's the safest place for my wife to sit too, but I don't make her sit back there. I don't get a choice in the matter because my usage is dictated by the government.

Same thing with seat belts. We have basically the same seat belts we had 30 years ago. They can't make those better? They must be so good they're also used in F1, NASCAR and Indy. Not even close. Government regulation has completely stopped any effort to make seat belts safer for regular drivers by making any such innovation a liability to whoever tries it.

Comment Re:Well (Score 3, Informative) 510

Most places in the US, the taxi service is highly regulated not merely for safety but for the purpose of excluding competition. The common "regulation" is that a new taxi service must show customer demand that requires their new service. This is typically overseen by a board of their competitors who never seem to agree that they need another competitor.

You're spot on about the near impossibility of starting a new cab in a lot of major US cities. The price of a medallion for a cab in NYC is roughly $360k for an independent operator. They have a fixed number and nobody else is allowed to participate, regardless of need or service availability.

The concept of "everyone should play by the same rules" is pointless with some groups are grandfathered in and allowed to play.

Having read some discussions of Uber in Sweden, I think, regulation just meant a proper license, posting fares and insurance. All relatively reasonable requirements of a regular taxi service. There are issues with the posting of fares as Uber is a one-off service of unique trips, but that's perhaps an issue of updating the law. There is still the problem of traditional taxi services using the law to prevent a new service from coming into existence. They aren't truly interested in the customer who this law is supposed to support.

Comment Re: Don't Do The Dig ... (Score 1) 601

We pay regularly for police response. We don't pay one big bill after the police show up. You present exactly the opposite case of how the environmental bills are split up (or not split up). We bear the costs of police, fire, education as a society. Some bones show up on a property which are deemed valuable to society (deemed valuable by some small group and some bureaucrats in actuality) and single land owners are responsible for the whole cost.

Comment Re:Don't Do The Dig ... (Score 1) 601

Fundamentally, it is putting a value on the site, but putting the cost on the finder. The cost should be borne by those who value it, if that means "the people" then the government should come in and pick it up, possibly even paying the owner of the land for the use.

In this case, the government only values it as far as the owner can pay for it.

Comment Re:"Liberty-Minded"? (Score 1) 701

So we can't be free to go without a seat belt because we aren't allowed to be free from government interference in the medical marketplace?

Really, once you accept that a government hand in health care grants the government authority to dictate our actions, there is virtually nothing which is beyond the scope of the government.

Comment Re:Collateralized vs Non-Collateralized Loans (Score 2) 461

How are you going to stop the wealthy from getting better services? Will you shut down the Harvards and Yales? Force them to teach who you deem worthy?

This "public" you speak of which will dole out education to those approved -- who are they? The same elected officials and their agents who have caused the current problems? You don't think this will lead to only the best connected getting the premium schools?

At least in a free market a poor person with talent can take a loan to go to a good school. The best schools will continue to want the most talented people.

Also, risk shouldn't necessarily be borne by the universities, but by the lenders. A student would probably end up with a credit score for education loans based on a universities success, their own academic history, their chosen field's ability to repay, etc... The poor would definitely be able to attend an elite university in this fashion, they just might not be able to study 18th century French literature.

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