But... education! Benefits us all! And public education doesn't have anything to do with people not being able to afford having children in the first place, right?

Also, that way lies madness. If I don't use the roads/public transit/libraries, should I pay for them?

For me, the benefits of a public education did not outweigh the drawbacks. I know I am a very radical thinker. I think mankind would do better if children were integrated into life instead of being kept in a school.

I once knew a very smart conservative libertarian who made two exceptions to his general position out of self interest - health care and education. His reasoning: ignorance and disease are both infectious.

You know, if my taxes were raised enough to cover my share of the cost of universal health care, I'd probably be paying less than I currently am for my HMO. Probably not more, and a lot more people would benefit from it.

But what do I know.

I think mankind would do better if children were integrated into life instead of being kept in a school.

So what about kids that are born into families with poor education, or into parts of the country with poor education backgrounds? Not that we do a great job of bridging the economic divide in this country, but it seems to me that this idea would make that gap even larger.

While I'd rather my tax dollars NOT go towards funding wars of agression or military occupation of the Middle East, I can't very well bitch about the stupidity of the general population if I decided I want to defund public education.

I'm not suggesting we close all the schools. But after armageddon I think we should think long and hard before we re-open them.

I love the smell of loopy in the morning...

Laga, have you read any John Holt?