Too Many Cops?

Is Mitt Romney right that we have too many police, too many firemen, and too many teachers?

Cops

If you are an oligarch living in a gated community or hire your own private security force then you have to agree that being taxed to pay for government police is redundant. However, for most people police are a comforting presence. In fact, you hope your city has enough extra money to invest in crime prevention which is far better than getting a 911 busy signal after you've been mugged.

Firefighters

Again, oligarchs have begun turning to private fire services. It allows for fire fighting resources to be focused on rich, upscale communities without wasting money putting out blazes in the rundown homes of poor folk.

Teachers

Even before the modern Gilded Age we live in today, the rich preferred their system of private schools to the public education system. Private schools trumpet their small class size (Mitt Romney sent his children to a private school with an average class size of twelve.). For the children of the oligarchs small class size is a vital consideration. However, these same oligarchs contend that for the general hoi-polloi who attend public schools big classes don't matter. They have funded research claiming that classrooms filled with thirty, forty, even sixty students are just peachy.