If you ask me, I still think it's a good idea. Of course, now I know how complicated and unreadable tax codes have become.
The advantages are obvious.
Don't like their fancy new development scheme in the New Territories? Put your money somewhere else.
Don't like the NSA? (Hello NSA bots/agents!) Just don't pay them. The effects would be instantaneous - can you imagine what a conservative 40% reduction in budget would do to them? (OK, maybe they're making money elsewhere)
Don't like wars? You can now not pay for them. How many people would actually want to pay for a war, when you consider all the marvelous possibilities.
Don't like Common Core? Don't pay them.
Like the National parks just a bit? Pay them.
Like your government library? Pay them. Maybe they'll even get smart and create patron programs.
Government school ruined your childhood? Don't pay them ever again!
Enjoyed your stay at the hospital? Pay 'em.
Isn't this fun? Of course. It's infinitely better than demonstrations, getting monitored and/or arrested by police you paid for with your hard-earned money!
And here's some food for thought. Why has no major government adopted such a scheme?
Hint: It would be like shooting oneself in the foot!
1 comment:
I would really love to see different government departments compete with each other to the taxpayers to provide funding for them. Imagine the Water Supplies Department competing with the AFCD for your money :D
Yes, I think the departments could then work as state-sanctioned monopolies. Probably with more accounting and advertising overhead, but I don't think there's anything fundamentally "wrong" with such a proposal.
A result of this would be departments favouring their benefactors, as there would then be a direct relationship between the tax payer and the department. This could have different implications, depending on the tax base. Say there is corporate tax, and the land developers paid a lot of tax to the Planning Department. Open bribery! Perhaps it would be better if each voter had equal allocation portion of the budget, and no corporate representation.
Getting this to actually be implemented in any non-anarchic state (i.e. Somalia) is going to be really difficult, though. Power tends to gravitate together, and government bureaucracies do not easily let go of power.
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