[A. Pole]

If parents paid for their childrens education, instead of tax payers, imagine the tax break EVERYBODY would have.

But in the past Golden Age of Free Market, when all schools or teachers were private, most parents were not able to afford school for their children and majority of children did not get any education. They learned the trade of their parents (farming or craft) and that was it.

Is it feasible for a large modern country like USA to return to this model and survive?

[mountn man]

Is it feasible for a large modern country like USA to return to this model and survive?

I posted some of the economic reasons why it might. But to counter your point of limited education in the past, the homeschooling movement today is huge and picking up speed. Homeschoolers on average score higher on standardized tests.

Do a search here on FR on homeschooling and see whats happening. Especially on how homeschooled kids excel in college or their jobs.

Even if people reverted back to the education levels relatively like they were years back, the level of personally responsibility and character would rise.

Imagine a good old country boy, with a "limited" education and integrity, being your neighbor. Now imagine having a highly educated neighbor like..... oh, say....Al Gore, Ted Kennedy, John Kerry.

[Alberta's Child]

But in the past Golden Age of Free Market, when all schools or teachers were private, most parents were not able to afford school for their children and majority of children did not get any education.

I hate to break this to you, but guess what . . .

Most parents still can't afford school for their children, and the majority of children today do not get any education.

Based on what the previous posted said, it seems that the only difference between today and yesteryear is that we spend $11,000 per year for uneducated kids, whereas we spent $0 back then.

[Feldkurat_Katz]

If parents paid for their children's education, instead of tax payers, imagine the tax break EVERYBODY would have.

But in the past Golden Age of Free Market, when all schools or teachers were private, most parents were not able to afford school for their children and majority of children did not get any education. They learned the trade of their parents (farming or craft) and that was it.

One should also remember that in the Golden Age there were no reliable contraceptives, so people had children, whatever the incentives or disincentives.

We don't know how the parents will respond to having to pay for education on the pay-as-you-go basis, but I would venture to guess that many will reach for the rubber.

Any major policy change should be ideally tested on volunteers, e.g. in a small remote island republic ;-)

[steve-b]

But in the past Golden Age of Free Market, when all schools or teachers were private, most parents were not able to afford school for their children and majority of children did not get any education.

The fundamental fallacy of such arguments is that the world was far less wealthy (both in toto and per capita) in past centuries than it is today -- even rich people lived miserably in many ways. NO social or economic system can deliver goods that simply don't exist.