A Freebie by Any Other Name
By Goldwater Institute: Arwynn Mattix (10/30/06)
When I was a child my parents used the old adage: “nothing in life is free.” But since they paid for everything I needed, it’s no wonder I didn’t believe them.
As I grew older, I did chores to earn money for clothing, helped in car washes to earn money for sports, and got a job to save for a car. Eventually I learned my parents were right, nothing in life is free.
Unless you’re talking about a government service, that is. We have free education through 12th grade and many students receive free transportation, free tutoring, or free or reduced-price lunch. According to Arizona’s constitution, even higher education should be “nearly as free as possible.”
But “free” services do have a price tag. This year, k-12 education funding cost $4 billion, school transportation cost $5.5 million, and free and reduced lunches cost $155 million. Moreover, higher education received almost $964 million in taxpayer funding. That’s a long way from “nearly as free as possible.” And begs the question, free for whom?
It’s time we grow up and stop seeing the government through the eyes of a child. Services provided by the government are no freer than the food, clothing and shelter our parents provided when we were children. Instead of offering costly services and calling them “free,” government policy should move in the direction of encouraging greater personal responsibility by having those who can afford it pay for services they receive.
Arwynn Mattix is a Research Assistant at the Goldwater Institute.
http://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/article.php?/1167.html
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