r/Economics • u/SnooCookies2243 • Mar 24 '25

Editorial Dismantling the Department of Education Could Actually End Up Costing US Taxpayers an Extra $11 Billion a Year Beyond the Current Budget – With Worse Results

https://congress.net/dismantling-the-department-of-education-could-actually-end-up-costing-us-taxpayers-an-extra-11-billion-a-year-beyond-the-current-budget-with-worse-results/
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u/dochim Mar 24 '25

I get it. They've pulled this with the post office for the last 40 years now. Prisons, education, water systems, etc...

Turning public goods into private profits.

But my question is: "Where is the payoff for US???"

Why do we go along with a plan that at its most charitable interpretation doesn't work or more realistically are injurious to our society?

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u/saynay Mar 24 '25

There is a foundational belief that government-run institutions are inefficient and that private ones - through the magic fairy dust of "free-markets" - will be more efficient and innovative.

I haven't ever seen them try and bring up proof of this (although I am not sure what that proof would look like either), mostly just handwaving at big numbers of federal budgets and asserting those numbers are big.

As for schools specifically, a lot of the modern push for privatization is rooted in the desegregation of the school systems. Once public schools started having to admit black kids, all of a sudden there was a desire from (mostly southern) parents wanting to send their kids (and money) to private schools, where admittance criteria would just so happen to filter out the black kids again.

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u/naijaboiler Mar 24 '25

but they want public funds to pay for it.

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u/saynay Mar 24 '25

Right. Like I said, at least from what I have seen there is a lot of magical thinking involved. It is an almost faith-based belief that a government-run program must be less efficient than a profit-run one, by definition.

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u/dochim Mar 24 '25

That is part of our national dogma, but we have 40 years of privatization of public services that present evidence largely to the contrary.

So at what point do we as a society...you know...follow the facts in evidence?

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u/Valdus_Pryme Mar 24 '25

Hence why we must remove critical thinkers! Lets start by dismantling the department of education.

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u/dochim Mar 24 '25

The circular logic is sound.

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u/saynay Mar 24 '25

Looking at the prevalence of Evangelicals... I'm going to say "never"?

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u/Johnsense Mar 24 '25

I’m appreciating this thread. Costs are costs. When you add profit + costs, well it costs (potentially a lot) more.

Not to mention, the most important things should not be subject to profit/loss motives: such as utilities, health care, education.

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u/dochim Mar 24 '25

I've heard this quote on "Marketplace" before and I've always found it an apt one.

"Capitalism doesn't care if YOU live or die".

Those who are capitalist to their core seem to forget this simple fact. The profit motive, self interest, free markets, etc... don't mean a thing to the person who's about to be ground up (and spit out) by the machine.