[coffeecrazy1]

Your post digs at the heart of what terrifies most members of the public...i.e. members of the two dominant parties.

The truth is, the vast majority of the public, including yourself(and this is not ad hominem...this is a statement in response to your post), hates the concept of freedom. What most people like to imagine is conditional freedom, where what they like is allowed, and what they do not, is not.

For instance:

1)Most people hate drugs, therefore they are illegal.
2)Many people hate guns, therefore they are illegal.
3)Almost everyone hates other people's actions which radically differ from their own, especially in terms of how others' actions fit with their personal morality.
4)Largely, most want business to be regulated because they are not the primary beneficiaries of the profit that the select few who own the companies enjoy.
5)Most people believe children to be the paramount of societal and personal aims, therefore no child should be left behind...every child deserves an education.

As a libertarian, my response to your first three questions is this: what business of it is anyone what drugs I choose to injest, or what guns I have in my closet, until I affect someone else adversely with either? What difference does it make to you until I kill you with my bullets, or drive my car into the side of your house. When that happens, then there is a violation. Then, there is a fracture of the law.

Every single law in this country that is preventative in nature is designed to do one thing: MAKE PEOPLE FEEL BETTER ABOUT THEMSELVES. You are kidding yourself if you believe that they exist to prevent a certain action.

Regarding your fourth question, I fail to understand why people are so resistant to sheer profit-driven ventures, when time and again they have proven to be the most efficient, the best run, and the most fully realized operations. The truth is that one result of the upheaval of the 1960's movement is that people can no longer be proud of their achievements. To do so is shameless at best, and hubristic at worst. I, as a libertarian, wholeheartedly reject the notion that I am duty-bound to share my earnings with anyone. While I live on this Earth, it belongs to me. If it makes you feel better to give your money away, then go nuts, have a ball.

I, personally, hate money. I hate it so much that I want to accumulate enough so that I never have to think about it again. That is my goal, and there is nothing wrong with it. But, any government restrictions on the perfect efficiency of the free market and the natural balance of supply and demand makes my achievement of my goal more difficult. To that end, I do not believe there is a soul in this country who likes worrying about money. I believe that this very concept is a large part of the pursuit of happiness aspect of our Declaration of Independence. Money does not buy happiness, but it does more readily allow the pursuit, and nothing is more American than that.

Finally, regarding your fifth question...first of all, I think it's high time we start demanding more of ourselves, not less...and that is especially so of parents. Animals in the wild do not need to be told to prepare their youth for adulthood, and we should not have to tell parents to prepare their children, either.

And, I have a feeling that for-profit schools would deliver a much more solid education than any public school for the very reason that business do better: THEY CANNOT AFFORD NOT TO DO SO. When survival is based on performance, people tend to perform. If you don't believe me, look at the ultimate example: Communist USSR.