----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Gerhard Fiedler" <lists@connectionbrazil.com>
To: <piclist@mit.edu>
Sent: Sunday, March 23, 2008 06:38
Subject: Re: [OT] Using vouchers to improve 
thequalityofschools(was:Education reform)


> Vitaliy wrote:
>
>>>> We can always agree to disagree, but I think we may have actually
>>>> gotten to the root cause of the disagreement. It appears to me that
>>>> your premise is based on the notion that the majority of people are
>>>> too dumb to make the right choices for themselves and their children.
>>>> That's why the smart people in the government have to make choices for
>>>> them. Correct me if I misinterpreted you.
>>>
>>> I can't talk for Byron, but maybe it's not about "smart" or "dumb" but
>>> about that the majority won't act so that the outcome is something you
>>> (or I) like?
>>
>> I don't understand what you're saying. Can you please rephrase? :-)
>
> You seem to think that, given enough free choice to the people, the things
> will turn out the way you imagine: a better school system, or at least
> better choices at your disposal. (WRT this, I think you may be right here,
> but there's nothing inherent in your proposal that would guarantee that
> you're right.)
>
> But it may also be that what will happen is something like a "VHS-ation" 
> or
> "Windows-ation" of the school system: the "market" doesn't favor the
> "technically" better options but the ones with the better marketing (or 
> the
> better "product politics"), and the unregulated market forces create a
> pseudo monopoly. You may end up with less and worse (in your opinion)
> options than you have now, with all the freedom (in principle) of a 
> voucher
> system as you propose.

There's been a good separate discussion recently regarding the merits of VHS 
vs Betamax. IMHO, Betamax was overengineered and did not deliver the value 
the customer actually wanted.

I strongly doubt that the free market system will produce worse options than 
are available now.

Vitaliy

PS FWIW, I do believe that:

1. Monopolies create economic inefficiencies, and should be broken up (think 
Standard Oil and Bell).
2. Microsoft is a monopoly. 

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