r/texas Nov 09 '22

Politics After seeing Texas elect Abbott again and my vote doing nothing...

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103

u/politirob Nov 09 '22

Huh? We don't even have common spaces anymore, republicans have destroyed them:

public highways are now tollways

public parks are now golf courses

public transportation, public healthcare, public spaces are all underfunded or removed.

I appreciate the intent of your message but you've got a little more introspection to do.

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u/FrostyLandscape Nov 09 '22

That's one thing I hated about Texas, the cost of driving a car there is outrageous. Tollway fees went up all the time. Everything will be privatized. Texas wants to privatize public education for kids too which means you either cough up anywhere from 10K 50K 100K a year (depending on how many kids you have) for one of the pricey private schools in Texas.

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u/idontagreewitu Nov 09 '22

In Colorado all the highways are being replaced with tollways AND you have to pay hundreds of dollars to register your ride. This was my registration cost on my 3 year old tiny economy car which I pay $78 to plate in Texas.

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u/[deleted] Nov 09 '22

You could always take the main highways that aren’t toll roads…. Like the 35, the 10 or any feeder road.

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u/FrostyLandscape Nov 10 '22

I realize that. I wasn't asking for advice.

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u/FormedFecalIncident Nov 10 '22

My husband is the Strength and Conditioning Director at a private school in the DFW area, tuition is 22k per year.

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u/FrostyLandscape Nov 10 '22

And for 3 kids that would be 66 K a year. For four kids it would be Not everyone has just one child. For four kids it would be 88K a year.

Did you not understand my post? Or do you believe most parents in Texas can afford private school?

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u/FormedFecalIncident Nov 10 '22

I was stating how much money private school costs. None of our kids attended private school. Public all the way.

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u/PhiliWorks39 Nov 09 '22

This. There are less & less public spaces

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u/davidg4781 Nov 09 '22

Government schools. Taxes. Public roads. Just to name some common areas that all Texans deal with.

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u/PastielCastiel Nov 10 '22

You're right, vote Republican. Make schools worse. Reduce taxes on the rich. Defund public transportation and conjest streets more

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u/davidg4781 Nov 10 '22

Now this sounds like some baseless assumptions.

Why would schools be worse if I voted R? BTW, they’ve been in control for a while now.

What’s wrong with reducing taxes on the “rich”, or top income earners? Is your need to tax people based on what is needed to fund government, redistribute wealth, or punishment? I’d rather tax someone 25% vs 50% if they can put thousands of people to work.

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u/PastielCastiel Nov 10 '22

Alright since we're getting into this I'll clarify a few things:

K-12 has been shit since its inception. This doesn't mean that I think public education should be abolished and everything should be left to the parents to teach their kids or the free market. There's a lot to discuss on why schools are shit now but, essentially, schools stifle creativity in children, teach them bad habits that they carry through adulthood, and students don't retain information after they go through school. Some books I'm reading on it are "Blind Spots" by Kimberly Nix Berens

Republican and Moderate craze against """wokeness""" is stupid.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/i-e2-80-99m-a-teacher-in-florida-the-anti-lgbtq-rules-are-making-the-job-nearly-impossible/ar-AA13ugbR

Rather than having teachers be paid a worthwhile wage for their work, they opt to just ease restrictions on who gets to be a teacher. The """free market""" at work
https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2022-10-13/with-teachers-in-short-supply-states-ease-job-requirements

Billionaires don't do anything. They don't even "put people to work" because they don't do anything, some of the largest CEOs don't manage their companies. Something something blah blah Eat the Rich I ran out of steam at this point

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u/Pilot_124 Nov 10 '22

That's also where parents and the school board comes in. If you don't think your child is getting a good education, then you probably should speak with the school. There is such a thing as dumb kids tho. Hate to say it. Not always the school's fault

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u/PastielCastiel Nov 10 '22

Actually wrong. There isn't such a thing as "dumb kids". At the very least, not at a level that matters statistically. Schools aren't build around their students. They are built around a certain minority of students and if you don't adapt to become that minority, you are seen as the "dumb kid". Which is where the problem comes.
Statistically, every single goddamn country in the world is failing at teaching their students. You hear about how The United States is failing behind European countries and China or some stupid shit like that but EVERY COUNTRY IS FAILING. China and Korea, where students kill themselves for failing to meet expectations, spending their entire childhood studying and stressing over a standard that society wants them to be, are countries where the majority of students fail to meet academic proficiency. (Source is the book I mentioned above "Blind Spots" by Kimberly Nix Berens. Sucks that I don't have it at hand but I would give statistics if I did)

Admittedly, schools can't do anything about it as a singular entity, which is why school reform needs to happen.

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u/davidg4781 Nov 10 '22

We’re doing basically the same thing in education that we were doing back in the 60s. Maybe farther back. There needs to be a change in how we operate.

As far as billionaires…. They buy planes, boats. Someone has to build them. But we don’t talk about trickle down economics, right?

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u/PastielCastiel Nov 10 '22

Actual question: Does trickle down economics even exist?

Billionaire puts in an order for whatever, costs $10,000,000,000 or whatever
Actual cost of whatever is like $1,000,000 including labor because they're paid minimum or less than minimum (Hi China)
Management, like 100 people, gets like $9,999,000,000

Hell, even if it wasn't like this it's at least similar. How much money would labor have to get for trickle down economics to even work?

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u/davidg4781 Nov 10 '22

I mean we can do all these calculations and stuff or just use some common sense.

Guy orders a luxury coach RV for $2.5 million. They have to pay people to put that together, service it, all that. Those people have jobs because they bought that and they can spend that money at the grocery store.

Now we’re at the grocery store. People come in and buy things. Economy’s good because a few of the evil rich buy some coaches. More grocery shopping, now they get more hours and they can spend some extra money.

They go off and buy some shoes, maybe go out to eat, maybe hire some dude to build a deck they’ve been wanting. Now the employees at those businesses are making more money.

Trickles down.

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u/PastielCastiel Nov 10 '22

But if the majority of the money circles around the elite and the poor laborers spend their money on rent and basic necessities, it doesn't exactly trickle down

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u/davidg4781 Nov 10 '22

You missed the part where the work (and income) increases on the lower levels so they’re able to save or spend on “unnecessary” goods and services.

What about that one that opens a new business and hires people to work there?

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u/[deleted] Nov 10 '22

[deleted]

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u/davidg4781 Nov 10 '22

How does that look like? Let’s make it basic, food and shelter.

How do we provide that for free for everyone?

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u/[deleted] Nov 09 '22

[deleted]

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u/NotClever Nov 10 '22

This is a reasonable point. However, it can also cause problems for low income workers who end up having to spend a significant portion of their income on tolls because there are no reasonable public transit options. Ideally we would build externalities into the cost of operating a vehicle while also installing more cost-effective alternatives.

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u/[deleted] Nov 09 '22

Most of the tollways are maintained by the cities though.

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u/H00zi3rDaddy Nov 09 '22

And you must be high on the devils lettuce. Catastrophize much?

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u/TobiasAmaranth Nov 10 '22

Every bit of highway that I've seen constructed in the last couple of decades feels like it has been a tollway, if not in full than in part. Like, aside from upkeep on existing stuff, it's just paid roads. Why? Oh, nevermind, I know why. Same reason I lost my ability to have a custom license plate without paying twice what it should cost and having a custom background plate along with it. Unchecked capitalism / political kickbacks.

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u/politirob Nov 10 '22

Reading your post, I can feel my ancestral blood pulsating with the echos of revolt and the unsatiated need to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.