Quoting Ben Golden <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > [Ben] (previously) > The best government is one that best facilitates the creation/discovery of > dynamic quality while preserving static quality. It's a maximization > algorithm, wherein preservation of static quality trades off with > development of dynamic quality. > > [Platt] > Yes, I agree. > > [Ben] > Platt, I'd like to clarify just how capitalist you are, given the above > agreement as to the purpose of government. The education debate has shifted > to which function better between public and private schools, which stemmed > from a point I made about funding education as a whole. Is your favored > policy private school vouchers? Or is it to not fund education at all?
As a practical matter, vouchers is the only viable way to improve the school system because there are too many entrenched interest groups now to change educational funding education as a whole. (The ideal free society would encourage individuals to provide for the education of their chidren just as they are now held responsible for providing them with food, shelter and clothing.) The main advantage of the voucher system would be to break the current monopoly and promote the benefits of competition. > By > my reckoning, there are some out there, who, upon having to pay the full > costs of their children's education, wouldn't do so. I'd think those kids > would have a greatly reduced chance of producing something with dynamic > quality. So I'd think government that seeks to maximize development of > dynamic quality has an interest in funding education. Yes, but I would rely on social pressure to encourage parents to do the right thing by their children and charity for the few children who are neglected. I think we should keep in mind it's not just a matter of money. Some very "poor" schools have done a wonderful job of educating. Some very rich schools have failed miserably. > I think this MoQ model favors greater government intervention than standard > utilitarian models do, since it favors policies that actively shift > individuals' preferences towards greater pursuit of dynamic quality. > Whether particular programs are effective/efficient remains an important > question, but overall I think the kneejerk capitalist position that all > government policies are bad clashes with the MoQ-based definition of > government. The way I see it (and I have supplied the back up quotes) the MOQ favors free markets and free enterprise. I think that could apply as well to education as any other aspect of life and living. And, let's not forget that an individual's response to DQ is not necessarily dependent on the the level of her education. Regards, Platt ------------------------------------------------- This mail sent through IMP: http://horde.org/imp/ moq_discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
