Frequently Asked Questions
How will poor people be able to afford private schools?
How will poor people fare under your programs?
What ideas do you plan to eliminate traffic jams?
Won't we lose our privacy with a pay-for-usage system?
Won't a pay-for-usage system be too complicated?
Won't there be monopolies and too high fees charged?
How would road companies compete and profit?
HOW WILL POOR PEOPLE BE ABLE TO AFFORD PRIVATE SCHOOLS?
Answer:
1. LOWER TAXES: Poor people do not receive "free" education right now. Poor people pay school taxes directly through their property taxes or indirectly through higher rent. The money they save from the elimination of property taxes or lower rent can be used to pay tuition at a private school.
2. BETTER MANAGEMENT: Government schools cost almost $7,000 per year per student. Private schools will be able to offer better quality for less money. Private businesspeople are good at getting the most output from the least input.
3. NO MIDDLEMEN: Some schools may be operated by teachers themselves who can band together and cut out the money-wasting middle men. Teachers can get paid directly from parents thereby offering lower tuition and allowing themselves a higher salary if they do a good job and word spreads among parents.
4. TUITION SCHOLARSHIP TRUST: Government schools will be sold or leased to private education companies. The income will be placed in a blind trust invested in diversified porfolio of stocks and bonds. This trust fund will pay tuition only for poor parents and orphans who demonstrate an inability to pay. A side benefit is that the large influx of cash into the stock market will drive up stock prices and help companies raise cash to expand operations.
5. FREE TUITION: Private schools can offer free tuition to needy students as charity, also to fill empty seats and attract students of different backgrounds and talents.
6. MORE CHARITY: If all Californians have their property taxes eliminated as I advocate, people would have much more money to donate to charities that pay the tuition for poor students.
7. EDUCATION LOANS: Parents of poor children could take out loans to pay for tuition which they would pay back over time. The repayment of these loans would be guaranteed by a lien on their income.
8. MENTOR LOANS: A poor child could be paired up with a rich sponsor who will pay that child's tuition bills and try to help that child be successful in life so the child is able to repay the loan to the donor.
9. CHILD SUPPORT: A parent is the only one who should be forced to pay for the cost of educating their child. Just as a man who fathers a child is forced to pay child support, both parents should have the child's tuition cost deducted from their paychecks by court order until they are paid.
10. PRIORITIES: Some people who claim to be too poor to pay for their children's education own recreational vehicles, multiple cars, boats and other expensive luxury goods. These people should pay their children's education bills before buying luxury items, cable television and cigarettes. Unpaid education bills should be covered by selling off the luxury items of the parents.
11. FAMILY PLANNING: If people understand that they will be responsible for paying for their own children's education, they may decide to only have as many children as they can afford to educate.
12. PARENT VOLUNTEERS: Some poor parents could work at the school in exchange for free tuition for their children and a modest paycheck. This will provide their children with a great education and keep school costs down.
HOW WILL POOR PEOPLE FARE UNDER YOUR PROGRAMS?
Answer:
Poor people will notice the greatest improvement of all. The lifestyle of poor citizens changes a lot when the economy improves. An extra $100 a week can make a big difference for someone who is surviving paycheck to paycheck.
1. LESS LOSS TO TAXES: By lowering taxes poor citizens will keep more of their own earnings instead of losing it to taxes.
2. MORE JOBS: Lower taxes and reduced regulation will cause the economy to boom thereby creating more jobs and driving up wages.
3. LOWER COSTS: Fewer taxes and regulations will lower the cost of goods and services so they will spend less of their paycheck on rent and food and keep more for other uses.
WHAT IDEAS DO YOU PLAN TO ELIMINATE TRAFFIC JAMS?
1. CAR POOL LANE ELIMINATION: Everyone should be allowed to use the car pool lane no matter how many people are in the car. It is obscene to have thousands of cars stuck in a traffic jam and have a open car pool lane only a few lucky cars get to use. Most people who use the car pool lane didn't give up driving their own car to join a car pool, they simply have more than one person in their car, perhaps another family member going to the store with them.
2. MORE LANES: Many freeways could fit in another lane if they were re-marked. Although this may eliminate safety lanes in some cases, the freeways will be more safe if the same amount of cars have more space because of more lanes. Also, even with safety margins cars involved in accidents usually rest in the middle of freeway after an accident anyway. Cars that lose power which would normally use the safety margin don't just go from 60 mph to 0, they drift to a stop allowing cars behind them to safely brake and avoid them.
3. MORE ROADS: Private companies should be allowed to build more roads and charge whatever price people are willing to pay to use them.
4. FAST REMOVAL: People involved in accidents can be rescued faster by medical helicopter. Cars involved in accidents or cars that have lost power can be quickly cleared off the freeway by private helicopters who will send the bill for their service to the owner of the car or their insurance carrier.
5. PAY FOR USAGE: If people pay for road usage, market forces will provide an incentive for people to drive more efficiently. These usage fees will replace other types of taxes used for roads, which I will eliminate. Toll booths have been rendered obsolete by technology. Cars can be metered for their usage using electronic transmitters, bar codes or other systems. Pay-for-usage has been successful at eliminating traffic congestion in London, England.
WON'T WE LOSE OUR PRIVACY WITH A PAY-FOR-USAGE SYSTEM?
This is a valid concern. However, privacy can be assured by having a central private company maintain all tracking records with a $100,000 guarantee that no one will be allowed to get information regarding your travels. If someone gets this information they will be required to pay you $100,000. I will sign into law a bill that forbids courts, businesses, individuals or anyone from asking, receiving, maintaining or using such information. The company that maintains the tracking/billing information will also be required to completely destroy it after 60 days.
WON'T A PAY-FOR-USAGE SYSTEM BE TOO COMPLICATED?
No, just as many competing telephone companies may handle your telephone call from Los Angeles to New York and settle accounting for it between themselves, road companies can do the same.
WON'T THERE BE MONOPOLIES AND TOO HIGH FEES CHARGED?
This is also a valid concern. If we just sold off roads there might not be enough competing roads to keep prices down. As a transitory step the government could just lease the roads to private companies, allowing them to charge no more than a certain amount per mile.
HOW WOULD ROAD COMPANIES COMPETE AND PROFIT?
That company that moved the most cars through its roads would earn the most money. Traffic jams would either slow their revenues per hour or divert cars to roads of their competitors thereby eliminating their revenues for these cars completely. Therefore road companies would have an incentive to prevent traffic jams and end them as quickly as possible. They would also have an incentive to move as many cars as possible through their roads.
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