Where do these people come from and why do they always gotta talk out their bee-hinds?

COLLEGE TUITION: Breaking the bank?

Swinehard:"Why should we expect less fortunate Oregonians to pony up more taxes for our kids to attend the University of Oregon or Oregon State University?"

Answer: Blowhard assumes only his kids have the right to the opportunity to get a reasonably priced education from a public university. The public university system is there because it benefits us all. That is one of the foundational values of our modern democratic republic. Our two highest values for government's role in society are public safety and education, in terms of dollars. This comes from the understanding that education butresses the safety goal.

Informed people make informed decisions. When we can be reasonably sure most of the reasonable people can be expected to make reasonably informed decisions, the People can be counted on to actively support the safety of our republic.

Therefore, a sliding scale might serve everybody's interest. The public can be reasonably expected, especially given the influx of educated professionals, to allow the distribution of payments come largely from the population using the public university system. Then poor Joe Poorman will not be saddled with the costs of educating Dave's kids.


And then there's this:

Home on the public range?

Dave says:"They're not looking for a handout; ranching is not a subsidized industry."

According to the Southwest Center for Biological Diversity, "Livestock ranching on federal public lands is subsidized to the tune of $100 million annually in direct payments; indirect subsidies may be three times that."

See here: Livestock Grazing on Public Dime?

The habitat damage is inestimable in terms of dollars. We've been donating our public property to these guys for long enough. Who knows what we could have after eliminating the several thousand invasive species of grasses and plants and bacteria and fungus and God only knows what else? In terms of public wealth, why are we giving the beef industry our money? That cost should be reflected in the purchase price. So when you buy beef, the price will reflect the cost of production.

Dave seems to encourage carrying one's own weight when it comes to education, but expects us all to pay for beef. Beef is not a public good. It should pay me to use my resources. I might even be inclined to let beef payments be used for his kids' educations, as long as he reciprocates when my kids go to college.