I'm not sure if the tragedy of the commons would apply in this case. The "mandatory" aspect of elevating discretionary spending into social spending via taxatio

I'm not sure if the tragedy of the commons would apply in this case. The "mandatory" aspect of elevating discretionary spending into social spending via taxation seems to fundamentally alter the psychology of spending. "Well, if I absolutely must spend this money on other people, then I guess I'll spend it on ___" (education comes to mind as one area people in America might universally agree should get more dollars). The weakness in this system would be the lack of expertise within the "common wisdom" of the people. That might be solved by, say, providing a "template spending ballot" from respected people... a sort of proxy delegation but simplified so you just copy down the numbers they say. If that latter option were made simple enough that 90% of people could understand and do it, the expertise of a few would hold larger sway than the somewhat uninformed choices of the many. BTW, a friend and I also thought of this idea independently; we called it "mandatory taxes, voluntary distribution" [1] [1] http://canadaduane.posterous.com/mandatory-taxes-voluntary-distribution-econom http://canadaduane.posterous.com/mandatory-taxes-voluntary-d...