[geeks] education systems around the world

[Mike Meredith]

On Sat, 25 Oct 2008 13:42:11 -0500 (CDT), Jonathan C. Patschke wrote:
> On Sat, 25 Oct 2008, Mike Meredith wrote:
> 
> > I'm not sure why you're blaming the UN for the cost of this right.
> 
> I'm not.  

Well you did say :-

"I didn't realize the UN was quite -that- broken as to declare that
 everyone has a "right" to the fruits of the labor of others.  Either
 the"

                               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Which does kind of blame the UN for a right that _might_ be provided by
taxation (and in the US taxation was already being used for that
purpose). There isn't actually anything in clause 26 that insists that
education be provided by taxation unless you count the word "free".
Home schooling is free for the children; a neighbourhood voluntary
school could be free for the children.

> The right to a free anything that requires effort from someone else,
> however, doesn't follow.

Perhaps not.

But a lack of education is such a handicap in a modern society that an
uneducated person would have a great deal of difficulty exercising any
of his rights. Or to put it another way only an educated man can be
free.

A society that cannot find the resources to provide education to
_all_ children is a pretty piss-poor society. Taxation may be the worst
way of providing those resources, but at least does provide them. And
there's far worse things that taxation can be used for.

-- 
Mike Meredith (http://zonky.org/)
 the idea of God implies the abdication of human reason and justice; it
 is the most decisive negation of human liberty, and necessarily ends in
 the enslavement of mankind, in theory and practice.
  -- Mikhail Bakunin