Illustration of Federal Budget

[Vuk]

I can't agree with that, however, what are they competing for?

Competition for each state to govern itsself better. If your elected officials in your state government have the responsibility of governing your state, and they are doing a poor job, meanwhile the guys in the state next door to you are providing their citizens with an excellent education and promoting economic investment and competition, you are either gonna move to the other state, or, more likely, oust your elected representatives in favor of someone who will do a better job. Right now state officials really have very little responsibility at all.

If they knew how to govern themselves they wouldn't need this money in the first place.

Your right, they don't need this money. This money is not allowing them to govern themselves.

The American system of government isn't supposed to work this way but realistically the States cannot afford to run everything they need. With the expansion of social services, education and healthcare a constitutional system built on an 18th/19th Century idea of absolute state rights is just not capable of working.

lol, they end up paying for all that anyway! I will forgo explaining why I think that most of the social services are bull and should be cut out anyway, and simply state that the taxpayers pay for it all anyway. Each state knows their own budget, and their own needs better than the federal government. What is good for one state is not always good for the other. That 18th/19th century idea about states governing themselves is as valid today as the day it was conceptualised. It is an essential part of basic freedom, and makes sure that power is kept under control. You have to think checks and balances. Considering the vastly greater amounts of power the government controls today, as well as the enormous amounts of wealth that certain individuals control, I would think that it is more important today than it was then.

And...? Yes it costs less, but you have a decreased ability to pool resources.

Boy that sounds Marxist. :P Seriously, since when did pooling and redistributing resources ever create a succesful economy? Sure, you have to for somethings, such as defense, but as much as possible, it should be avoided.



You overestimate a parent's willingness to leave their entire life behind, such as their job, their family and their friends. Also if your idea is true then why is it not more for mass migrations to one state or another? Why do large families persist to live in States which have low test scores?
Further, there is no underlying effort to seek out the reasons for why State's continue to have low test scores.
If state officials took responsibility for education though, and the system was not working in one state, the citizens of that state could oust their representatives.

Why should citizens have to forgo other essential services in order to pay for their education?

"essential services" I don't know about your state, but you should see the BS WI spends its taxpayers money on. States make plenty of money to pay for necessities. Somethings would be nice to have, but if you cannot afford them, too bad. Wait till you can or change your priorities. If my neighbor has an ATV, but I cannot afford one, should he be forced to buy me one too? Of course not, it is my problem and I have multiple ways of solving it.

So you are claiming that some State's are unequal? I'm not really sure the Constitution is designed that way. In fact... it isn't!

States have equal rghts, but that does not mean they have an equal GDP, or an equal population, or an equal militia. It is not the job of the Federal Government to make sure all these other things are equal, just that they have equal rights and everyone plays by the rules.


Take a look at the defence expenditure and tell me if you can find a reason for the national debt being the way it is. I would also blame constant tax cuts.

That is getting into a philosophy that I disagree with you on strongly, and that this debate is not about. Tell you what though, cut the porkbarrel spending, the BS social services that the government has no right giving, the BS foriegn aid that just gets stolen, used against us, or makes corrupt people richer, and guess what? There would be no need to cut defense spending. That is one of the few things the federal government is supposed to do, and it is the one that you disagree with. :P

Vuk