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From: nrh@inmet.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Response to Anti-Reagan Tirade - (nf)
Message-ID: <1207@inmet.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 6-Apr-84 06:59:01 EST
Article-I.D.: inmet.1207
Posted: Fri Apr  6 06:59:01 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 8-Apr-84 01:20:57 EST
Lines: 55

#R:pyuxa:-64600:inmet:7800079:000:2772
inmet!nrh    Apr  6 01:47:00 1984

>***** inmet:net.politics / andrew /  9:23 pm  Apr  5, 1984
>>  Why should we the
>>  taxpayers, pay >14k for you to go to a "prestigous" school?  I'd rather 
>>  invest in a state university, and to my knowledge, none of the state
>>  universities cost >14k.
>
>In other words, you feel that the "prestigious" schools should be reserved
>for those who can afford to go to them, thus perpetuating the existing
>inequities in the class structure.  I suppose that in an era when elitist,
>materialistic trash like "The Preppy Handbook" can top the best-seller
>lists, such attitudes can resurface as well.
>
Hmm.... Rather than "perpetuate the existing inequities in the class structure",
by "reserving" certain very expensive things to those who can pay for them,
let's by all means stop "reserving" things like:
	1. Heavy machine tools -- Everybody should get these, otherwise 
  	only preppy things will be manufactured.  
	
	2. books -- never mind those subsidised libraries -- saying that those
	are sufficient would be like saying that state schools are sufficient.
	Everybody (whether they can pay or not) in entitled to all the books
	they want.  In particular, I'd like one of the original Gutenberg
	Bibles, please.  To deny it to me would be continue unacceptable 
	inequality in the class structure.

	3. Beluga Caviar, french champagne -- It is no doubt a horrid
	miscarriage of justice that the poor seldom eat this stuff.
	Imagine!  We expect them to grow tall and strong on the rather
	non-gourmet foods available with food stamps and welfare
	budgets.

	4.  Mercedes Benzes.  "Oh Lord, won't you buy me, a Mercedes Benz".
	The fact that ghetto dwellers must use beat-up old chevvies 
	(when they have cars) is a blight on our national honor.  We must
	end it at once.  By all means, a 50-year waiting list for new
	Mercedes Benzes would make things a lot more fair.

>Incidentally, has anyone considered that broadening the educational base (by 
>subsidizing high-quality education to anyone capable of benefiting from it) is 
>an investment in this country's future rather than a waste of tax money?

I rather doubt the public universities were ever touted as "low quality"
education -- I suspect their purpose was exactly the sort of investment you
seem to be advocating.  

I find it a little silly that you're ready to conclude that the poor cannot
reach the conclusion that education is good for their children.  Why
not, if you think the poor are being excluded, just give them enough
money to go to these schools and then let the poor decide how best to
use the money?  I do not advocate this, but am curious.  Also, 
just HOW do you measure who is capable of benefiting from it, and,
given that some are more capable than others, how do you choose?