7 ms·
Free at the point of use is how it's usually expressed.
by ollysb 10mo ago
Free at the point of use is how it's usually expressed.
- seneca 10mo agoSure, but that hides most of the facts about how it works. There are a lot of parties involved in this, including people paying for it and being paid for it, and those paying probably out number those getting it for free at point of use. Sweeping that under the rug is just a sales ploy, which shows what the outlet wants you to believe about this program.
- justin66 10mo agoThat taxpayers pay for government programs isn't the big revelation you seem to believe it is.
- baumy 10mo agoYes, it actually is, to many people. Poll a random subset of people with the question "are you in favor of free childcare?". X% will say yes. Poll another set with the question "are you in favor of taxpayer funded childcare?". Y% will say yes. I would bet any amount of money that X>Y, and (X-Y)% of people did not think about the fact that a free government service is not actually free. Exactly how big X and Y are, I couldn't say. But identifying propaganda and deceptive language is never something that should be discouraged, even when it's advocating for a cause you agree with.
- n4r9 10mo agoWhat else could it mean for a state-provided service to be "free"?
- jeromegv 10mo ago[flagged]
- seneca 10mo agoMe? I'm not opposed to it. I think tax-payer funded attempts to increase birthrates in our own population are a good idea. We should be doing more to encourage people to have and raise children. I'm opposed to weasel words and intentionally misleading people about how economies and governments work. I'm also not particularly confident encouraging people to have their children raised by strangers is a good idea.
- frumplestlatz 10mo agoWe shouldn’t subsidize employers who fail to pay a living wage. We also shouldn’t put our finger on the economic scale such that it’s impossible to afford having a family unless both parents work. There’s no such thing as “free”, and every intervention like this has sweeping and widely unanticipated consequences. Nevermind the question of whether it’s best for child development, for which we have plenty of evidence showing the answer is “no”.
- plorg 10mo agoMight as well complain about how we get free roads and fire services.
- SV_BubbleTime 10mo agoNo one has accused roads and fire services of being free.
- benregenspan 10mo agoThis is a good example, because a "freeway" is free at point of use, but obviously understood to not be free of construction and maintenance cost. It is called "freeway" because "free-to-drive-on highway" would be too wordy.
- thunky 10mo ago> It is called "freeway" because "free-to-drive-on highway" would be too wordy. This is wrong. "Freeway" comes from free flow of traffic: https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/freeway.cfm https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/freeway.cfm
- benregenspan 10mo agoI wouldn't call using the most commonly accepted (and concise) terminology a "sales ploy". If you want every service to be accompanied by a wordy explanation of how it works, then every article would need to mention that the current status quo involves complicated taxpayer subsidy in the form of dependent care FSA accounts and a host of state-level programs.