It's been pointed out to me that my political / current events commentary is appreciated more (although marginally) than my inappropriate joke material for the Brown family blog, so I'll try to stick to that in the future...
Constance, as well as every kid in her grade level at school is skiing this week on a school trip to the Pyrenees. I think it cost us €15 out of pocket, the rest is subsidized by the local and regional government. This is a French tradition, and happens in just about all school districts (I'm sure it may exist in the states some places as well...)
While it's true that a certain % of the kids in Constance's school have been on skiing vacations with their families, it's likely that there are some kids in the class who will see the mountains and the snow for the first time in their lives, and that is something that I personally feel is a good allocation of my taxes. Sure, there is no "return on investment", but I remember the first time I went skiing (thanks to Tina Wileikis, our music / piano teacher), and I will always have fond memories of that first day on the slopes. The area we live in is the poorest region in France (as measured by GDP) and the town we live in has a certain number of people who live pretty much hand to mouth (the hand being the "welfare" state support that they live on). As much as I don't like my taxes allowing people to "choose" whether to work or not ("Well if I work I only make €300 more a month, and that's not enough to make it worthwhile..." is something I have heard people say openly), I do like the fact that the children of these families get to have a one week ski vacation including rentals, lifts and lessons - and everybody in the same boat (or bus, if you would).
That will have to do for now, I hope you are all well, enjoy palm Sunday (that was always one of my favorite masses) as well as your Easter preparations…
Peace,
Jeffrey
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment