- Joined
- Mar 21, 2016
- Messages
- 12,130
- Reaction score
- 7,253
- Location
- Charleston, SC
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Libertarian - Left
People hate taxes. I think a large part of the reason is that everyone has something they don't want their tax dollars to pay for. For right wing **** heads who hate poor people, minorities and women the idea that any of the money they spend might go to help them is infuriating. For decent liberal human beings we'd rather not see our tax dollars used to murder people overseas or lock up minorities.
The thing is each of OUR portion of the money spent by the Nation is a minuscule and insignificant portion of the whole. If you hate abortion you can just tell yourself that your tax dollars were the portion that went to the military. If you hate war you can tell yourself that your tax dollars were used for education or whatever.
In fact, I'd take it a step further. What do you think would happen if the tax payers could have more direct choice when determining the budget? What if every year when you did your taxes there was a form you could fill out that would let you decided what departments your tax dollars went towards? So for example you would have a bunch of choices like:
General Military
Boarder Security
Police/FBI
Public Education
Higher Education
Social Security
Veteran Health Care
Elderly Health Care
General Health care
Welfare
Food Stamps
Green Energy
General Energy
Infrastructure
Environmental Protection
General Scientific Advancement
Medical Research
Space Exploration
...
And then some kind of General Fund that would be entirely up to the discretion of Congress.
Each Tax payer would be able to put a % of their tax dollars next to each section of the list depending on how they wanted their tax dollars spent. Obviously we couldn't get too detailed, and we would probably need to have at least 10-20% go to the General Fund in case **** gets totally out of wack, but by and large you'd be able to choose what you wanted your dollars to go towards and our collective decisions would determine the budgets for each of these departments. Congress would decide more specifically what exactly the military fund for example would be used to pay for, but it would be required that we dedicate that amount to the military in some form.
I would argue that in the end the resulting budget wouldn't look significantly different than the one we currently have, but I think a lot of people would hate paying taxes a lot less if they could convince themselves that their money was used for the thing they wanted to.
If I'm right this is essentially what already happens it just doesn't FEEL that way to most people. By implementing something like this I think it would eliminate much of the fighting and frustration. People would be able to say with confidence that none of their money went to military or Abortion even though the government spent money on those things they tell themselves that the money wasn't their own.
The thing is each of OUR portion of the money spent by the Nation is a minuscule and insignificant portion of the whole. If you hate abortion you can just tell yourself that your tax dollars were the portion that went to the military. If you hate war you can tell yourself that your tax dollars were used for education or whatever.
In fact, I'd take it a step further. What do you think would happen if the tax payers could have more direct choice when determining the budget? What if every year when you did your taxes there was a form you could fill out that would let you decided what departments your tax dollars went towards? So for example you would have a bunch of choices like:
General Military
Boarder Security
Police/FBI
Public Education
Higher Education
Social Security
Veteran Health Care
Elderly Health Care
General Health care
Welfare
Food Stamps
Green Energy
General Energy
Infrastructure
Environmental Protection
General Scientific Advancement
Medical Research
Space Exploration
...
And then some kind of General Fund that would be entirely up to the discretion of Congress.
Each Tax payer would be able to put a % of their tax dollars next to each section of the list depending on how they wanted their tax dollars spent. Obviously we couldn't get too detailed, and we would probably need to have at least 10-20% go to the General Fund in case **** gets totally out of wack, but by and large you'd be able to choose what you wanted your dollars to go towards and our collective decisions would determine the budgets for each of these departments. Congress would decide more specifically what exactly the military fund for example would be used to pay for, but it would be required that we dedicate that amount to the military in some form.
I would argue that in the end the resulting budget wouldn't look significantly different than the one we currently have, but I think a lot of people would hate paying taxes a lot less if they could convince themselves that their money was used for the thing they wanted to.
If I'm right this is essentially what already happens it just doesn't FEEL that way to most people. By implementing something like this I think it would eliminate much of the fighting and frustration. People would be able to say with confidence that none of their money went to military or Abortion even though the government spent money on those things they tell themselves that the money wasn't their own.