>>21
well, your homless-to-working program sounds nice, so far, how fleshed you do you have this idea? i'd reccommend some kind of deterrent against those who would just freeload off the system. but then again, if I were making such a program, i'd probably do a sort of blind interview, to find out if a potential program participant would actually be willing to work, in any case i may be interested in supporting sucha program as a independent nonprofit. why should it be the govenment that does charitable work? that way you're more likely to get helpers dedicated to the cause, rather than govenment emplyees who could care less. and while being a private charity may not give it such a solid floor as a government funded program which has a preset govenment budget, govenment funding has a ceiling, whereas a private can get as much money as people are willing to give.
but then again, i belive anything that CAN be done with a private organization, profit or non-profit, SHOULD be. i'm not too fond of the lack of accountability of government funding.
just look at the school system, america is #25 in the world, our shools are getting owned by countrites who don't even spend a TENTH of what we do per child. i blame that on the lack of accountability. public schools don't have to run a tight ship, govenment money will always be rolling in. each member only has to work hard enough not to get fired.
here's a neat idea, have the govenment pay for education, but not RUNNING it. here's somebody's system as i heard it: each child is worth a determined amount of money. and a school gets that much money for each child enrolled in thier school. that's as far as the govenment gets involved. the schools operate as private buisnesses, competing for the government money. the teachers and shools strive to make the best of that money, as the better the job they do, the more children will be enrolled in thier school. if a school does a mediocre job, it will bust as parents, who now choose what school thier child goes to, choose better schools. (rather than being ordered to send them to whatewver school the government chooses.) freedom of choice, now THAT'S what i want to see from america.
segwaying back to the fairtax, aside from the waste from the complexity, and the ease of tax evasion that even the flat tax would allow, i really like the fairtax as it's a system that seems more in tune with the ideas the USA was founded upon. rather than this tax system, which quite frankly, is turning commie, what with income, property, death, and hell, GIFT taxes? i'm not a fan of those taxes as they kind of reflect the attitude that the govenment owns everything of value, and they you're only borrowing from it. i prefer the fairtax because it gives you the freedom to decide for yourself how to spend every cent your money, and making paying taxes as easy as spending on the things you want anyway.