Penn Gillette 75% right

[Plane]

http://bigthink.com/videos/penn-jillette-on-libertarianism-for-beginners


     Good food for thought at least.

      What is the right level of coercion?

[Xavier_Onassis]

The problem is that corporations need to be prevented from screwing the citizens, because that is what the business plan of many of them is. But Penn Gillette makes far more sense than a lot of people, as does Bernie Sanders.

[Plane]

The problem is that corporations need to be prevented from screwing the citizens, because that is what the business plan of many of them is. But Penn Gillette makes far more sense than a lot of people, as does Bernie Sanders.

   When the truth is known some businesses benefit and some loose out , because the truth is not everyone's friend.
   Having competitors is a good reason to uphold quality ,safety and credibility.

     Unfortunately when it is the government trying to screw you over , it is difficult to go to a competing service.

[Xavier_Onassis]

Competition is not really possible with a number of businesses. In such cases, the government needs to step in and guarantee fairness.

[Plane]

Competition is not really possible with a number of businesses. In such cases, the government needs to step in and guarantee fairness.

Ok , but not by taking over and becoming the monopoly itself.

[Xavier_Onassis]

It makes complete sense for local governments to run local water companies. We have both public and for-profit companies in my country. The city run companies charge less than half as much, pay their employees more, and have fewer contaminants in their water, according to several articles I have seen in the local papers. For-profit highways are also more expensive and rarely even less congested. No one has for-profit streets, and I know of no for-profit libraries. The public library was not only a cheaper place to rent DVDs than Blockbuster, it had a greater variety of films available. Blockbuster and other for-profit video stores tended to remove very good films to make way got 87 copies of the latest sequel of Die Hard.

We would be better off if local municipalities took over telephone and internet service. ATT and Comcast are the usual options, and they are the most hated companies in the country in survey after survey.

I don't see any reason to do this will cell phones, but land lines are a natural monopoly and ATT has sucked in all its manifestations here: Southern Bell, Cingular, BellSouth and ATT

Taxing citizens for public schools and libraries is clearly justified. If we did not do this, we would be a country of ignorami. 

[Plane]

.



Taxing citizens for public schools and libraries is clearly justified. If we did not do this, we would be a country of ignorami.

Here is a good example of the government being a half hearted effort because as a monopoly they don't need to be any better .

Various voucher programs have been tried , sometimes with success and it is worth trying to open private schooling to the greater number of people it can possibly serve.

We really are a lot of ignoramuses  and many of us are dissatisfied customers of the monopoly assembly line style education.

[Xavier_Onassis]

I am not opposed to private schools existing. I simply say that without public schools, we would be far worse off, Like Kenya or Uganda, for example.

Some of the charter schools score better than the public ones in my county; others score worse.
All of the charter schools pay MORE to administrators than public schools, but pay teachers far less, and their benefits suck.

[Plane]

Some of the charter schools score better than the public ones in my county; others score worse.

Main thing that matters.

What is the best strategy for maximizing the effect and quality that the students experience?

[Xavier_Onassis]

There are thousands of different teaching strategies, not just one. Strategy depends on the subject, the age of the student and the best way to teach that particular student. Not everyone learns in the same way.

The computerized games that are designed to focus on the student getting the right answer to math problems or English spelling problems are better than the homework and quizzes used on me when I was in school.

I sent my daughter to a Cuban run private school so she would learn Spanish for three grades. That worked out okay, but the teacher was uncertified and had no clue about how to teach math. The school paid about half what public schools paid their teachers, I eventually learned. So it took a lot of effort to teach her math and she still isn't too good at it.

I wanted to take her out of that school in the second grade, but my ex did not want to let me do it. I let her teach my daughter math for a while, and eventually she came around.