I do not have to buy gas or food stuffs either, that's a choice. I do not have to own a home (property taxes), I do not have to smoke or drink (sin taxes), I do not have to work (payroll taxes), most all taxes are optional in one way or another. So back to my question, how do you justify student fees (taxiation) going to athletics? not just at OHIO (though we are dispporationally, but at most all schools.
When I lived in Chattanooga, I always drove to Georgia to buy my groceries, now I simply hunt, fish, and grow 95% of all my family consumes.
So what is your point then? If students choose to attend Ohio, then they choose to accept that fee (or tax). No one is forcing them to pay it, so there willingness to do so constitutes some form of acceptance.
And let's be serious. A sin tax may be optional, but a payroll tax most certainly is not. At least not for 99% of Americans. Obamacare is also NOT optional, is it?
On the other hand, if you are a college student who is anti-athletics and does not wish to support ANY athletic fees, there are numerous opportunities for education that require no such fee.
My point is these fees are taxes, and if a person wants a college education they are taxed for athletics....
I just am trying to point out that on one hand some of you are against excess taxation, except when you are for it.
That's not true. And no one here is walking that line. Let the examples L.C. and Fox have stated soak in.
Something run at the the private (or even state level) is competely different than a national tax. You have the freedom as an American to shop those (private/state) options (you have the freedom to shop state taxes by moving). Not every college student in the nation is subsidizing D1 athletics, much less OHIO athletics. You're way off base here.
There's never any hard evidence for why we need to be taxed so much. All I ever hear is "But, but, but.. roads, and schools, and policemen, and the army".
Obama allocated one (1) Billion dollars towards our crippling national infrastructure as part of his 800 Billion dollar bailout. (What does this say about tax dollars that actually find their way to roads, water plants, etc.?)
Sure you've got schools. I'm all about schools. They absolutely don't need to cost this much (For example, take the budget they have now, and give some hard evidence as to why more money would help these schools reach the goals you've defined). But you've got schools.
Emergency relief is a merky subject. This is a job for the federal government, but not a clean cut one. And certainly a wasteful one. (Objectively why should we keep saving U.S. citizens that elect to live in a disaster prone city below sea level)
As for the army (all those other branches too) and national security alike. Our two biggest allies are the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean. Our biggest heroes are the computer programmers of our missile defense systems. Aslong as Canada and Mexico stay Canada and Mexico, we cannot fall to another nation from a physical takeover. Period. We can only defeat ourselves (financially or socially).
Everything else overseas is a propaganda excursion. Say what you will about a rouge terrorist. That's an accpetable loss if you actually understood how much that costs to "kinda sorta reduce the casualties sporadically".
Define your essential services. Defend why they cannot be delivered satisfactorily at the state level. Then estimate the cost of delivering those remaining services at the federal level.
But like Obama showed us over the past few weeks, even the federal government doesn't know what an essential service is.
Like I said pages ago BTC, by definition, excessive must have a point of relativity (something to be more excessive than). Are you claiming that the taxes we pay are not excessive, but in fact essential?
Just to pick an easy one, Obamacare is an excessive tax. We can work backwards from there.