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Exactly what I was getting at. Yes in practice hard to implement, but on a conceptual level it seems like in a democracy if one person is one vote, why can’t on

by elamje 8y ago

Exactly what I was getting at. Yes in practice hard to implement, but on a conceptual level it seems like in a democracy if one person is one vote, why can’t one person be one dollar(or many dollars) to fund the agencies they care about?

dwd 8y ago
It seems where you are going is forcing a lot of Government to basically run GoFundMe campaigns for their non-essential programs. This might be a good thing and in a lot of cases the chief backers may be philanthropists, public and private trusts and interest groups. Issues that you will come across are: - Deciding on what are essential services and the base level of the money they require - Overfunding (everyone giving a favourite department too much money) - Selling programs that are not sexy or exciting, hard to grasp and offer more indirect or secondary benefits (bike-shedding problem) - Funding of base research into technology that could be 20-50 years away. - Meeting international treaty funding obligations - Preventative programs and the big one: Funding (or not funding) the social safety net If it is cheaper model as far as the bureaucratic cost, and helps with transparency as far as where your money goes, great!
- elamje 8y ago
  Yeah, there are definitely issues determining what the essential government costs are, so let’s assume that system is in place and works well. I agree about the underfunding and overfunding point. However, I can imagine a community like HN would maybe dump more money into research and tech related things, and would be happy doing it. There will be niche funding groups for various sexy and unsexy organizations, and the nice thing is, people will be happier to “give” the government some of their income, rather than watch it get wasted in a black box. It’s definitely difficult to minimize rich having too much financial power in this system, but it could possibly use a system analogous to the bicameral legislature where big states are limited in power by every state getting the same number of senators.
Spooky23 8y ago
Why is the dollar in my pocket more valuable than me? You should think about why you think that way. In your system, End of the day, I’m well off by the standards of my community, and I live in a state that’s a banking center so we’ll have lots of political power. So if you live in the south and get hit by hurricanes or when SFO gets leveled by an earthquake, I’d suggest you move because my money isn’t helping you.
- elamje 8y ago
  I understand why you think that, but isn't it possible for other people to be compassionate? I think of all of the people that flock to cities to volunteer after a natural disaster. The most compassionate will be able to use their money to put it towards the things they care about. Additionally, if this was implemented at the local level, the excess tax pool, would be able to be accessed by all locals to directly help their area.
  - Spooky23 8y ago
    En masse, no. This is well established. People tend to act compassionately in the face of acute events. Most of the work of government isn't that sexy. You may think that staffing fair procurement is an expensive waste of time, until you compassionately allocate a billion dollars to some disaster and discover that half of it was pilfered.
    - elamje 8y ago
      That is true. I guess it would require some more policy for granular things like that.

by elamje 8y ago

dwd 8y ago

It seems where you are going is forcing a lot of Government to basically run GoFundMe campaigns for their non-essential programs. This might be a good thing and in a lot of cases the chief backers may be philanthropists, public and private trusts and interest groups. Issues that you will come across are: - Deciding on what are essential services and the base level of the money they require - Overfunding (everyone giving a favourite department too much money) - Selling programs that are not sexy or exciting, hard to grasp and offer more indirect or secondary benefits (bike-shedding problem) - Funding of base research into technology that could be 20-50 years away. - Meeting international treaty funding obligations - Preventative programs and the big one: Funding (or not funding) the social safety net If it is cheaper model as far as the bureaucratic cost, and helps with transparency as far as where your money goes, great!

elamje 8y ago
Yeah, there are definitely issues determining what the essential government costs are, so let’s assume that system is in place and works well. I agree about the underfunding and overfunding point. However, I can imagine a community like HN would maybe dump more money into research and tech related things, and would be happy doing it. There will be niche funding groups for various sexy and unsexy organizations, and the nice thing is, people will be happier to “give” the government some of their income, rather than watch it get wasted in a black box. It’s definitely difficult to minimize rich having too much financial power in this system, but it could possibly use a system analogous to the bicameral legislature where big states are limited in power by every state getting the same number of senators.

Spooky23 8y ago

Why is the dollar in my pocket more valuable than me? You should think about why you think that way. In your system, End of the day, I’m well off by the standards of my community, and I live in a state that’s a banking center so we’ll have lots of political power. So if you live in the south and get hit by hurricanes or when SFO gets leveled by an earthquake, I’d suggest you move because my money isn’t helping you.

elamje 8y ago
I understand why you think that, but isn't it possible for other people to be compassionate? I think of all of the people that flock to cities to volunteer after a natural disaster. The most compassionate will be able to use their money to put it towards the things they care about. Additionally, if this was implemented at the local level, the excess tax pool, would be able to be accessed by all locals to directly help their area.
- Spooky23 8y ago
  En masse, no. This is well established. People tend to act compassionately in the face of acute events. Most of the work of government isn't that sexy. You may think that staffing fair procurement is an expensive waste of time, until you compassionately allocate a billion dollars to some disaster and discover that half of it was pilfered.
  - elamje 8y ago
    That is true. I guess it would require some more policy for granular things like that.