Taxes
So, I just payed my 2006 taxes. The excercise took roughly three hours using one of the freely available web apps, and in the end I had to pay an additional thousand, taking me up to roughly $25k in total taxes paid.
With that amount of time invested, I couldn't help but thinking about process improvements (in case you were ever wondering, that's what the engineers mind does when forced to wait on a somewhat latent UI). And at one point, the question of how much value I was getting from those $25k struck. It's as much as I spend per year on housing and food combined, and the net result doesn't have the same feeling of money well spent.
Now, don't get me wrong, I get all the arguments about how paying for a common cause cannot be based on individual optin due to the attractiveness of parasitism.
But, if I had a free choice of how to allocate $25k per year, would I chose the deal that the administrations monopoly on power grants me today? This is, plainly, a loaded question because the answer is very likely to be a resounding No! for anyone trying to answer it.
Here are the complaints that immediately came to mind:
(A) High level politics - the war. I would not choose to allocate this amount of money, period. I do not believe in the idea of a forward deployed defense - the only good thing about the 9/11 attacks was that they assured us that terrorists are far from being close to posession of WMD. I don't see value in creating more unrest and hatred of America in an already unstable region.
(B) Social security and healthcare - I don't like the idea of an entitlement based system - I'd rather see a system that pays out based on need rather than amount invested. In my mind, the state should stay out of individual retirement but afford generally applicable bottom line guarantees.
(C) Education - I strongly believe in a state sponsored education system. I have my doubts about the current one.
(D) Local services - I'd spend more money on local emergency response and security services. I have my doubts about the way those services are currently priorizing their work (examples: I've paid hefty fines for speeding in perfectly safe conditions; when my last laptop was stolen, all I received when I reported the theft was a shrug-off and disinterest; I don't believe persecution like the riaa mp3 cases serve the common good).
So, in summation - I don't believe in an opt-in system of taxation. But what if I could personally choose which budgets 80 percent my money gets deployed in? Not sure that it would help all that much, but I'd love to be able to send the Better Business Bureau after the folks I pay $25k per year for federal and state services to.
With that amount of time invested, I couldn't help but thinking about process improvements (in case you were ever wondering, that's what the engineers mind does when forced to wait on a somewhat latent UI). And at one point, the question of how much value I was getting from those $25k struck. It's as much as I spend per year on housing and food combined, and the net result doesn't have the same feeling of money well spent.
Now, don't get me wrong, I get all the arguments about how paying for a common cause cannot be based on individual optin due to the attractiveness of parasitism.
But, if I had a free choice of how to allocate $25k per year, would I chose the deal that the administrations monopoly on power grants me today? This is, plainly, a loaded question because the answer is very likely to be a resounding No! for anyone trying to answer it.
Here are the complaints that immediately came to mind:
(A) High level politics - the war. I would not choose to allocate this amount of money, period. I do not believe in the idea of a forward deployed defense - the only good thing about the 9/11 attacks was that they assured us that terrorists are far from being close to posession of WMD. I don't see value in creating more unrest and hatred of America in an already unstable region.
(B) Social security and healthcare - I don't like the idea of an entitlement based system - I'd rather see a system that pays out based on need rather than amount invested. In my mind, the state should stay out of individual retirement but afford generally applicable bottom line guarantees.
(C) Education - I strongly believe in a state sponsored education system. I have my doubts about the current one.
(D) Local services - I'd spend more money on local emergency response and security services. I have my doubts about the way those services are currently priorizing their work (examples: I've paid hefty fines for speeding in perfectly safe conditions; when my last laptop was stolen, all I received when I reported the theft was a shrug-off and disinterest; I don't believe persecution like the riaa mp3 cases serve the common good).
So, in summation - I don't believe in an opt-in system of taxation. But what if I could personally choose which budgets 80 percent my money gets deployed in? Not sure that it would help all that much, but I'd love to be able to send the Better Business Bureau after the folks I pay $25k per year for federal and state services to.
