US Dept of Ed budget equal to more than $2100 per kid under 18

According to The US Dept of Ed's Budget Office website  they have a budget of roughly $160 billion ($63.7 billion plus $96.8 billion). According to the US Census Bureau there are about 75 million kids under 18 in the US. That means that the US Dept of Ed budget is equal to more than $2100 per kid under 18.

As the US Dept of Ed says themselves on their site "...it is important to point out that education in America is primarily a State and local responsibility." So instead of them taxing all that money away from people, and spending money on figuring out how to redistribute it from far off in Washington, and making local schools jump through hoops to get that money, why not either not tax people for it, or give it back as vouchers so people can afford to send their kids to good schools? Instead of sacrificing children in hopes of eventually fixing schools allow parents to right away find a school that meets their kids needs.

Taxing people on a Federal and State (and possibly local) level for schools and then only providing money to public schools makes for a system that favors the wealthy, who can afford to send their children to private schools or move if need be. Poorer people are forced to keep their kids in worse schools while their money is put toward improving schools in ways their kids probably won't be around to benefit from.

The current public school system benefits beareaucrats and union members at the expense of students and poor parents. It assumes people potentially thousands of miles away know what your kids need better than you. And with their redistribution of your tax money, they exert influence, too. They take your money and then graciously give it back with conditions.

The auto industry is so predictable and boring and linear it almost seems like a cartel at times.

The auto industry is so predictable and boring and linear it almost seems like a cartel at times.


I wish cars were just made more reliable, rather than have new fancy features. I don't need wifi, satellite radio, automatically adjusting temperature controlled seats. I don't even want power windows. Give me the crank thing for windows so it doesn't break. Give me space for an actual tire, not a donut.

Don't come out with boring looking cars that look different from the boring looking cars of previous years. Might as well go full steam ahead for the sake of cheapness and don't change the design at all for 25 years at a time, and paint them all the same color. Would sure makes parts cheap. Or don't even have a body. Some models of Lotus and other cars are stock engines &/or frames from a manufacturer like Toyota and custom bodies. That way the cost of the functional parts would be lower and people could customize however they'd like. More of a motorcycle feel to it, I think. I don't mean the Scion model where you can choose rims and bumpers. Not even close.







Having standardized parts might mean that you could easily get books that would document how to fix things. I'm not mechanically inclined, so maybe this is just me, but I find those Chilton books very confusing, particularly when they show you a photo and it may have a ton of differences from what you have based on different years and models.  Here's a crazy thought, you could even put labels on parts in the car, so if I look under the hood I'd see what's the head gasket and what the serpentine belt and what not are.

I know it seems hugely controversial for some reason to have a car that can get all it's power from an outlet. But how about if I could just plug my car in so that my regular battery could be fully charged every morning.

And if a car were standardized, I think mods to it that didn't just apply to the exterior or aesthetic elements would be easier to do and more importantly, to repeat. This might allow people to switch out how their car gets its power, for instance. Why is it anyone's business how you power your car? I don't think we need some national referendum if you want to make your car powered by charcoal and you can car-b-que while you drive. And if there was some consistency in cars, better documentation, tons of cheap parts, this would be possible. Encourage dealerships to do it, if you want to try to keep it in the family.

There are a million computers in cars now? How about a USB cord so I could plug it into a laptop, run some diagnostic program, and I could be told what's not working properly?