GI BILL

[JohnN]

Should I steal from tax payers to fund my education?  My immediate reaction is no.  However, were do I make a distinction of what government services are acceptable and which ones are not?  How can I justify using roads but not the GI Bill? 

 

Thoughts?

John

[dsayers]

"Authorities" claim to own the land you're standing on right now. That's why they pretend to be able to tell you what to do and collect property tax. In other words, you couldn't not use "the roads" since "the roads" is literally every square inch within the borders they claim.

 

The roads themselves aren't like water where you'd die without them. Realistically though, they're pretty unavoidable. Traveling is part of our interdependence. Compare this to education. Nothing the GI Bill would cover constitutes education. You could get some schooling, which can be important if you want to do something that the State has set up barriers to by way of things like licensing and coercive regulations. But you can get proper education without stealing a dime from anybody and it's more beneficial that what you'd get from stealing.

 

Obviously, stealing is immoral. However, one could make the case that you're just taking from a group that took from you first. More importantly, isn't the GI Bill money in exchange for military participation?

 

As an aside, I've never really liked the phrase "tax payer." People don't pay taxes, they dodge prison. You don't gift your wallet to the mugger, you avoid getting stabbed.

[tasmlab]

It'd probably be better take the money for schooling rather than go back and get a paycheck to go kill people in the military.

 

You could probably make a convincing restitution argument to justify taking the money.  The money has already be absconded or will be anyway, continuing to pay in (being forced to) and than voluntarily not taking the goodies probably won't end or even lessen the state.

 

I don't know.

 

What dsayers says about getting some schooling/accreditation  vs. education is all perfectly correct, IMO

[JohnN]

I would agree, it is best to avoid the moral issue unless "they" have left no other way around.  This is the case for what I am looking to do.  I would like to design and build alternative style homes, which most towns will likely require a licensed architect to sign off on.  I could design them and have an architect simply sign the plans to please the building inspector.  But why should some architect be able to charge me to sign his name.

 

I don't like the justification of stealing back from a thief.  It is a slippery slope.  

 

Since I was in the military, I spent four years as a parasite.  I was paid more than was stolen from me.  $142,837.95 is what I was paid over the 4 years.  So I cannot say that, I have been taken from.  In fact I have taken a lot from others.

[Josh F]

If you divided $142,837 by the amount of hours you worked, trained, and lived in the military it would be at best a couple dollars an hour.  There is no contradiction between taking state money and being against the state, both are based on the principles of self-interest.  If you feel guilty, put the money to good use by inventing something which helps people circumvent the state's monopoly.

 

Also you're not stealing from a thief, you sold your services to a thief and now you're collecting your promised payment. In fact not taking the bill really is letting the state steal more from you

Oh and the more people exploit the system, the sooner it crashes, right?

[WWW]

You would simply be taking back a small amount of what the government has stolen from you over the course of your lifetime, assuming that you were born in this country, went to a public school, payed taxes, and participated in the military. If anything, you are redirecting money away from the government to use productively, that most likely would have otherwise been used to fund government programs, the military industrial complex, etc. As Josh F stated, "...the more people exploit the system, the sooner it crashes."I am currently using the GI Bill to fund my education, and this is the justification that I use for it. I Hope that helps.

[original_brownbear]

Definetly go for it. I don't even think that there is any ethical problem. The government is a criminal organisation and as such will try to extract the maximum amount of property feasibly from it's citizens.

Therefore you are not actually taking anything from any citizen, rather you are homesteading unowned property which can not be redistributed to its rightful owners in any practical way as Rothbard put it.

Receiving governmental assistance in any case is not a moral crime in my opinion so long as you do not take active steps to ensure that your government keeps stealing from the people you're just changing the usage of the loot.

At any rate, long term you're likely to pay more in taxes than you receive now in goodies, so even if you don't follow the reasoning above you're still good to go

[PatrickC]

Personally only go to college if you're learning something productive, like engineering, accounting, software or a trade. Anything else will mostly be a waste of your time and could probably be learnt online in half the time.

 

As to the money, like all the good advice here, take it. You're not stealing from anybody.