I watched an interview of Serj Tankien the lead singer for System of a Down. And he said something like, when the time comes to pay his taxes he wants to be able to fill out a form, checking off stuff like schools, health car, etc. While crossing out weapons, or bombs. I think this is a great idea, but in reality i dont know shit. so maybe someone can provide some insight. thoughts?
SOAD was the first concert I ever went to. Still one of my fav bands. Honestly, That is the best idea ever. Could it work in reality? Who knows. If things were kept more on a local level then probably. As long as we are on a federal system, its way too complicated
If you gave the option of what to pay for I'm pretty sure a lot of people are going to pick the "pay for nothing" option.
oh "go" as in the money will -alright yeah I dont have to explain it I get what you mean then. yeah I agree with that then haha
Ehh...not really such a good idea considering most Americans can't even make a informed decision on elected officals. We tend to base our choices on 30 second commercials.
"Each person would have to pay the full fee for the service regardless of their ability to pay. Our tax system is based on our "ability to pay." The more money we earn, the more taxes we pay. And the opposite is also true. If we earn a small income, we pay less taxes." Well most people would just check of something else and leave something as say national defense's out of budget? Or another field.
does it matter wouldn't you morally feel better if you thought you weren't paying for the tools we use to kill people?
Gvmnt would never let this happen. Soo much fuckin money goes to national defense, and it's probably our governments main concern in order to keep our status where it is. Also if we lost our power, other countries would probably take advantage of that. Although I'm pretty against war and all our money going towards weapons, I just dont see that changing any time soon after we've came this far doing it this way. Although I do like OPs idea.
I think a mandatory defense fund is reasonable, but a reduced one at that. Our tried and true method of National Security is called the '2nd Amendment'. While a national military is necessary to protect the nation, they are controlled by the government, and who is supposed to protect us from the government?
Hm, great idea. I have yet to see this interview! I used to have a hugee fucking crush on Serj Tankian. And his solo, Elect The Dead, fuego. I can't wait for Imperfect Harmonies.
Tax choice is a great idea...but it's not easy to find via a Google search. So I took the liberty of giving it a Google friendly label...pragmatarianism. Here's the Wikipedia article...Tax Choice...and my blog entry with a list of other pages on the topic...Choose Where Your Taxes Go.
Too bad even if this was how things worked, just like the red cross, and most donation bullshit. The money never goes where you want it to.