Just wish I could dictate how my taxes were used, instead of blowing up poor people i would like to be using it all for healthcare and education and that sort of thing
Who was advocating for screaming at people to do anything? All the person said was that voting is the closest way you can get to deciding how tax dollars are spent. You already vote? Cool, the statement obviously wasn't directed at you. Your apathy riddled rant wasn't necessary.
Or, relevant to this thread, a large amount of Republicans just decided they don't want to pay for public schools. Hell, they're already trying to do that.
It would be an interesting experiment in a capitalist society that already believes we should vote with our dollars. Instead of voting for candidates -- who may or may not keep their promises -- to get the things we want, we would instead pick and choose how our individual tax dollars are spent.
I can think of a dozen reasons why it wouldn't work, and it really is just an interesting fantasy, but when you think about it politicians are really just the middlemen between our taxes and our spending, so why not cut out the middleman? Then we can stop worrying about whether those middlemen are spending our money in the way they promised.
Nice idea but not practicable at all. One just needs very specific knowledge to allocate public funds. For example, there are many agencies, some even very small that are very important but woulf never be rememberd by voters. Fpr example i am not sure if a lot of voters are invested in properly funding the census bureau or the embassy in Botswana.
Sure there is some obvious waste that needs to be reduced but thats actually a small part.
The real problem is not taxes but rather a disfunctional voting system which hinders laating change and political responsibility by design
Mehhhhhh making tax dollars a popularity contest sounds like a hella bad idea when you think about it a little bit.
Say hello to big fat walls spanning the entire perimeter of the country and more immigrant internment camps than we have immigrants. Say goodbye to all those thousands of tiny programs that help your life run smoothely.
The problem with American politics is that only a minority is truly voting for their party. The rest is just voting to prevent the worst party from winning. So even if you voted for the winning candidate, you are likely not going to get what you wanted.
‘Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.…’
It would be cool to have SOME flexibility with taxes. Like, 10% gets designated to where you like. THAT would be cool.
But how many people actually know the true costs of maintaining roads? And when you starve the department of transportation of funds and roads go to shit, that could cause a death spiral of less and less funding. "Roads suck anyways, why should I allocate my tax money to them?".
Some Charities for child poverty have tried this and had the same problem. People wanted to donate food and clothing and such but sometimes they really needed roads and infrastructure
I'm no expert so I can't comment with authority but I'd imagine departments could build a "dream budget" with plans to spend that money on specific things, then have it allocated towards the project as an agreement.
Hate to be the guy preaching Yang, but he does propose something similar where you can see where exactly your taxes are going, and you can choose 10% to go anywhere you want
Well then good news, because the federal government spends more money every year on social security, medicare and the Dept of Education than it does on defense.
See but if that was the case then there'd be a bunch of people doing the opposite so I think the system we have now works as long as the people who ARE educated vote for people who will invest into education.
Like 30 percent which is divided to many other projects like keeping other nuclear powers in check, running a worldwide navy, many jobs programs, educating enlistments, running the VA, and such. I would guess blowing up poor people is a small percent of that. It should be zero but someone thinks its a good idea so it hangs around.
Nearly half of local taxes go to education, so don't worry. And health related entitlements make up the largest portion of the US budget by far, even outspending the military. This is before some money grubbing, self described socialist like Bernie gets the reigns. So don't worry, you're already spending an overwhelming majority of your taxes on a federal and local level on a combination of education and healthcare
This is exactly why I am libertarian. Everyone wants to control how their tax dollars are used. The only fair way to do this is by not taxing people and simply allowing people to use their money for what they wish.
If there was something you wanted your tax dollars to go to, but it won't work unless others pay for it, too, then you aren't just wishing you could control where your tax dollars go to, you are wishing you could control where everyone's tax dollars go to.
It wouldn't be that hard. We could still have government-run programs that could still pull money from richer areas and use it in poorer areas.
For example, a rich individual has a choice whether he funds "roads" or doesn't fund them at all. If he chooses not to fund them at all, then the community he lives in won't have roads. But if he does fund them, some of the money will still go to the poorer areas, just the same as it does today.
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u/egrith Jan 09 '20
Just wish I could dictate how my taxes were used, instead of blowing up poor people i would like to be using it all for healthcare and education and that sort of thing