As everyone has seen lately, the United States system of politics is broken. It hasn't functioned the way it was intended to function since World War II. While I was in the shower today, I was thinking of ways that we could get the people back into the government, and mitigate the role of Lobbyist money and power in the House and Senate. (Doesn't everyone think about these types of things in the shower?)My lightbulb moment occurred with this idea. Why don't we give the power back to the people paying the taxes?
Not all of it, of course. (Because the last thing I want to see is Tax Funded "Honey Boo Boo for President") What if we set up a system that allowed the people to allocate up to 10% of their annual taxes to non-profits or issues they care about? Imagine a world where women could directly fund Planned Parenthood with their tax dollars. The Right could fund their Church Outreach (soup kitchens, aid to patrons that can't afford cost of living, etc) and the Left could fund the Arts, Education, Science. This could simplify tax code by eliminating loopholes and potentially allowing a flat tax to work because those that are rich would be allowed to allocate their tax dollars (that would typically hedge in charitable contributions and Cayman Island accounts) to social programs and the greater good of the community.
Best part would be, we could make this all entirely transparent. Imagine schools getting new classrooms, with emails going out to those that funded the project via their tax dollars, thanking them for taking care of the welfare of the students. Imagine being able to give your kids teachers a little bonus because they go above and beyond the call of a teacher and actually encourage your children to think instead of just memorize facts. What would it be like to be able to see who all would donate to social programs and indulge in the Arts or preservation of our National Parks? Sure there would be those that would be greedy and donate to programs they take advantage of, but donating only 10% allows us a checks and balances approach to limiting the self serving purposes of these donations. There would likely need to be restrictions, such as you can't donate to something you have direct control of funds distribution in. In addition, you'd need protections to make sure that companies didn't extort donations from their workers. The possibility for corruption is there, but it would be much more evident than our current method of tax deductions,
These donations could be analyzed by politicians to allow a true reading of what the people want taxes funding. I can't even comprehend how much easier their job would be if the people had made the decisions as to what their 10% would fund, and that they would simply have to fill in the rest of the budget to cover the necessities. This would guarantee funding to social programs that matter, and indicate the projects that really don't deserve funding in the first place.
Of course, this is only a rough drafting of what would need to be put in place. The main benefits would be to allocate the funds as the people would see fit, and allow the politicians to view what the people deem important and further fund those projects, while filling in the gaps to maintain the necessities. We can think of this as a streamlining of the tax and funding systems, and restoring the power to the people.
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Monday, March 12, 2012
Time for a Music & Lyrics dump!
I've found myself jamming out to a lot of unique and groundbreaking music lately. Don't know where it really came from, or why I suddenly had the urge to create a new post after being gone for so long, but if there are any readers still around, please feel free to take a quick listen and let me know what you think.
First off is:
Bassnectar - Carried Away
I don't even think I need to say much about this track, but in case you missed it... Yes. Yes he did just pull off a Ragtime Dubstep remix.
Dash Berlin Feat. Jonathan Mendelsohn – Better Half Of Me
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Best Friendzoning Line Ever.
Good friends are like vibrators, they may not give you what you want, but they'll do their best to get you taken care of
Monday, January 16, 2012
#Occupy your job, appeal to your government.
It's just sad. It started out as 25 people protesting because they flushed 55k on degrees and couldn't afford to pay their student loans cuz they couldn't find jobs in underwater basket weaving... Now every freeloader that no longer gets mommy and daddy's money is protesting.
Yes. I'm talking about the #occupy movement. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm all for fiscal reform and bringing back the middle class, but these kids have no idea what they're actually protesting. It's sad. Almost as sad as Obama choosing to throw money into creating a new heathcare alternative, rather than reforming the one that is already in place.
I think it's on par with destroying a building because someone busted out a couple of windows, but what do I know, I'm just an honest citizen, not a corrupt politician or lobbyist.
Yes. I'm talking about the #occupy movement. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm all for fiscal reform and bringing back the middle class, but these kids have no idea what they're actually protesting. It's sad. Almost as sad as Obama choosing to throw money into creating a new heathcare alternative, rather than reforming the one that is already in place.
I think it's on par with destroying a building because someone busted out a couple of windows, but what do I know, I'm just an honest citizen, not a corrupt politician or lobbyist.
Friday, January 13, 2012
My girlfriend talking about Tebow
Greatest moment ever. I was looking at buying a jersey for me, and one for my girlfriend. (Girlfriend) initially said she wanted an Elway jersey, but changed her mind and wanted a Tebow one because "Well, I think I know just about as much about football as Tebow does."
She has no clue how right she might be...
She has no clue how right she might be...
Friday, December 16, 2011
Yay! The feds are using CarrierIQ!
This its the exact reason I run a custom rom and kernel on my Samsung Continuum. I'd rather have some helpful programmer looking at my data than the feds and the government.
Interesting part is, people have been removing CarrierIQ from roms and kernels for months if not years over at XDA forums.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
US UAV taken down by apparent hack attack
A United State UAV is undamaged and now in the hands of the Iranian government. The US military is citing a faulty self distruct, but the likelyhood of that being the truth instead of spin is as likely as Obama actually making the decision that he's credited for in this article.
DEBKAfile, Political Analysis, Espionage, Terrorism, Security
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