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ConnieDee's avatar

In this case, the fee is a voluntary tax that could presumably provide revenue for better roads. This kind of model seems like a better strategy than feeling guilty about paying extra for something because you can afford it. Global Entry and TSA Precheck might be other examples. Wouldn’t paying a fee for better service be more effective than “writing a letter” if the revenue stream for the program is designed to split the benefit between the provided service and its less efficient default?

As for schools, paying private school tuition doesn’t exempt people from paying property tax to support the local public schools as far as I know. Raise and/or distribute property tax better.

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Eric Deamer's avatar

The argument being made is that rich people don't care about the state of the public schools because their kids don't go to them

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ConnieDee's avatar

This point has been made forever. But we can't control what rich people care about. There needs to be a way to leverage what they do care about in the direction of better funding for public schools. Maybe tax private tuition ...

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Tom West's avatar

"we can't control what rich people care about."

The point of the post is that we can: by making use different services (i.e., the ones everyone else uses)

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belfryo's avatar

I'd say no because it doesn't fix the problem. And I'd wager that that revenue stream wouldn't go into fixing the problem either. It would be bookmarked for some other project

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ConnieDee's avatar

So back to feeling guilty and writing letters?

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