-=> Quoting Robert Craft to Walter Luffman <=-
 RC> Personally, I oppose taxation for the purpose of
 RC> manipulating behaviour.
You'll never get on Algore's Christmas card list with an
attitude like that!   (And neither will I, because I
agree with you completely on this.)
 RC> Generalities aside, taxes should not impoverish citizens.
 RC> IOW, no tax on income < 110% of the poverty level.
I agree in principle, but I don't really care for the term
"poverty level", much less letting the federal government
determine what the poverty level is.  Can't come up with
an alternative offhand, though, so let's use it for the
sake of argument.
 RC> Secondly, the tax rate should be a single rate for all
 RC> incomes. Progressive tax rates are socialist in nature.
Absolutely.  
 RC> Thirdly, exemptions should be limited to those activities
 RC> in which the state has a legitimate interest. Example:
 RC> since the state has a real interest in child-rearing,
 RC> insofar as it is done well, exemptions for marital status
 RC> and for children are probably legitimate. 
I'll go along with this, too.
 RC> Other exemptions, such as for education, will be more
 RC> controversial.
They will be, but they shouldn't be.  After all, education
of children is a part of child-rearing and therefore a
legitimate part of the state's concern.  Notice that I did
not say that the state has a right to an unfair advantage
over private concerns when it comes to running schools.  I
think government's educational involvement should be limited
to funding public schools with state and local taxes, and
setting/enforcing _minimum_ standards for both the contents
of curriculum and the people responsible for teaching;
schools should be encouraged to exceed those minimum
standards, with funding increased as schools exceed those
standards -- demonstrated by independent testing of
students' knowledge.
The federal government's role in education, except for
special cases such as the service academies and ROTC, should
be limited to establishing and administering a program to
help educators in various locales exchange information and
ideas for the benefit of all; I envision something similar
to a network of investigative reporters looking for good
(and bad!) ideas and exceptional teachers, then publishing
their findings in a journal.
Walter, Forked Deer River Ilks
wluffman@usit.net
... Honest, teacher! A virus really DID eat my homework!
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