Gideon Fubar's Journal: Alternative taxation models..

So i was thinking..

Assumption A: all public works must be a community effort, they don't just magically appear.

Assumption B: Not all people want to directly contribute, and that's why there are national taxes. (yes, i know it was all once about kings and their arbitrary wants.. The metaphor has shifted, k?)

Assumption C: people sometimes take specific issue with how their tax dollars are spent.. (look guys, sometimes it just sounds like what you're saying is 'i deserve that money, AND roads, electricity, gas, distribution networks', etc, etc.. you're like anal retentive children sometimes with the i want i want i want... you're lucky the rest of us even pay attention to you.)

what about a system of income taxation that comes with an intention questionnaire? Totally optional, of course.. but if you could nominate, from a selection of projects, or just in a number of fields (e.g education, infrastructure, healthcare, etc..) or subcategories thereof (eg. schools, roads, rail, hospitals, etc..)

These preferences could be used to derive the budget for that particular project, such that popular projects would end up with more funding from individuals, but less popular projects might need to get their budget elsewhere.

Note that this would be in addition to other taxes (yeah, you have them..) and could be used for some percentage, etc, etc... If the money isn't used up by a certain time, it could be added to the global budget pool, or surplus if that exists. Also, those who don't nominate specific projects will automatically have their tax dollars added to the global pool

Note also that this probably won't go down well with real conservatives because of the amount of manpower that is likely to be involved.

I've seen a nominations system similar to this for .au superannuation, though i don't know if it's something done only by some groups, only here in .au, etc.. the superannuation system is somewhat different, since it's effectively an investment portfolio, but the idea is there..

This thought brought to you by a jcr post on federal funding of schools. The man has a valid point, but the money has to come from somewhere..