From: stephen@sprunk.org   
      
   On 30-Mar-15 01:00, Adam H. Kerman wrote:   
   > Stephen Sprunk  wrote:   
   >> TSoPE is brutal, though; I've been working on it for six months   
   >> and haven't even gotten halfway through.   
   >   
   > I didn't read that till I took a class at the Chicago school. It   
   > helps a lot to read it with the weekly lesson. Still, George's   
   > philosophy was more advanced at this point and some of the ideas are   
   > better spelled out. No, it lacks the beautiful prose of P&P.   
      
   It's not just the prose; George spends more time ranting about how   
   everyone else gets it all wrong and how nobody listens to him than he   
   does teaching his own ideas.  At this point, I'm only persevering   
   because I'm stubborn, not because I'm really learning anything new.   
      
   P&P didn't have that problem; he just explained his ideas in a   
   straightforward way and with plenty of examples, and he let their   
   correctness speak for itself.   
      
   >> Ah.  One of the reasons real estate is so cheap in Texas is that   
   >> cities, counties and school districts get pretty much all of their   
   >> funding from property taxes.  (Cities get some sales tax money too,   
   >> but not a lot.) That keeps property values low and stable, growing   
   >> roughly with the general rate of inflation.  Since land values   
   >> indirectly affect the price of everything, that keeps the total   
   >> cost of living down.  And we do have the usual exemptions for   
   >> homesteads and seniors.   
   >   
   > Hah! Who knew the Texas legislature got some aspects of tax reform   
   > right?   
      
   Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.  If it spins backwards, it's   
   right four times a day!   
      
   This is really a side effect of decentralization; most powers (and   
   duties) are delegated to overlapping local govt units, and the state   
   requires them all to be self-funding--mostly via local property taxes.   
   The state itself doesn't do much more than coordinate.   
      
   S   
      
   --   
   Stephen Sprunk         "God does not play dice."  --Albert Einstein   
   CCIE #3723         "God is an inveterate gambler, and He throws the   
   K5SSS        dice at every possible opportunity." --Stephen Hawking   
      
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