4 ms·

Man, this would be so good for the US to implement. The exact tax details and how money is exactly moved around are, of course, the devil in the details. But,

Man, this would be so good for the US to implement. The exact tax details and how money is exactly moved around are, of course, the devil in the details. But, forget all those very important but very arduous details for a minute, and just imagine that system up and working. You pick some small town out there on the Gift website. You like, I dunno, Country Hams. There's a small place outside of Harrisburg, PA that specializes in that gift. They send you a medium sized ham around the holidays. It's not a mass market ham, as that's against the rules. It's real home grown and processed country ham. They put in some advert for the country ham festival in October or some month (I don't know anything about the ham world, sorry!). Its free tickets to get in. You think, hey, why not? Go out there, spend some hotel/AirBnB money, eat at the diners, buy gas, etc. Great little fall escape. You do this every year for a while. The town gets a reputation, they're the Country Ham town now. Boom, a little cottage industry, government mandated to exist and help out the people there. The town gets to choose the cottage industry, of course. But they can leap frog it, make something of it, get things going again. Government is just coming in and priming the pump. I don't know. There's something so damn wholesome about this idea that I just love it. Helping out each other, getting things moving again, diversifying the market, keeping things alive.

sdrothrock 3y ago
> Boom, a little cottage industry This is the devil that lives in the details. You have an industry of people who are trying to get these charitable donations, and the towns that can't afford that industry or don't have anything particularly commercializable to sell get left in the dust. For every town that becomes Country Ham Town, you have hundreds of small towns who are "random postcard town" who only get a few bucks a year. It's tough to say if they even make money vs losing money on that.
- Decabytes 3y ago
  I wonder if this could get handled at the county level. The money could be dispersed equitably by the county seat, and people could choose from a number of gifts provided by the towns in the county
  - emodendroket 3y ago
    That's a good thought but why stop there? Why not have some kind of national government that collects tax dollars and apportions them according to need?
- midoridensha 3y ago
  >and the towns that can't afford that industry or don't have anything particularly commercializable to sell get left in the dust. What's wrong with this? If a town doesn't have anything to offer, then why does it exist at all? And why should anyone outside the town be supporting it to help its continued existence? The western US is full of "ghost towns": towns that used to exist back in the 1800s during the mining boom then, but when the mines dried up, so did the towns. The people all left and the town fell back to nature. These days, there's usually nothing left besides building foundations, if that. Small towns these days that have nothing left to offer should go the same way.
SamuelAdams 3y ago
[deleted, moved to parent discussion.]
minorannoyance2 3y ago
I hate to rain on your parade, but for every one town trying to "fulfill your dream", you'd get ten doing stuff like "donate to our square town in the triangle state you hate, and we will pass laws to own those triangles for you". Then add the Amazon HQ debacle and similar on top, and sprinkle some sweet madness during any campaign season (which is most of the time at this point). I'm pretty sure that making taxes "fun" is "fun" in the same way that NFTs are "fun" investing.
emodendroket 3y ago
I don't agree. The whole concept is diverting money from places that need it (the ones with all the residents) to places that don't. That was at least sentimentally understandable when people were sending tax dollars to places they have actual connections to, but once it becomes about securing some kind of consumer goods it doesn't even have that justification and will obviously benefit most municipalities which least need the help (since they will be most able to put together an appealing package). Anyway, if you want artisanal ham there are plenty of butchers who would appreciate your business.
- kelnos 3y ago
  Is that really the case, though? It seems like Tokyo (etc.) are still doing just fine, and a lot of the smaller towns that act as "feeders" for the big cities get a boost, which allows the small towns to do a better job of educating their kids, which directly helps the big cities later on. I think you maybe missed all the details in the article that explains why it's a little unfair that the small towns spend money to educate their citizens, but then don't get to reap the benefits of that education? I do agree with you that the end result in Japan is now a bit weird, since many people "pick their hometown" based on whatever gift/deal is available. But I think even in the original formulation, the benefits were much more than just "sentimental".
  - lmm 3y ago
    The "small towns" that get the most money this way are those that produce the best products, which tend to be the ones that were already the most successful. The most desperate towns gain very little from this scheme because they don't have anything to offer. The only reason that Tokyo isn't benefitting the most of all is that it's specifically excluded from taking part. If the goal was to transfer some of Tokyo's tax income to towns that need it more, why not just do that, without all the complex bureaucracy and inefficient loss of tax revenue? If the beneficiary is meant to be the town that educated a person, why not run the system that way? (All that stuff is on record in Japan).
    - midoridensha 3y ago

sdrothrock 3y ago

> Boom, a little cottage industry This is the devil that lives in the details. You have an industry of people who are trying to get these charitable donations, and the towns that can't afford that industry or don't have anything particularly commercializable to sell get left in the dust. For every town that becomes Country Ham Town, you have hundreds of small towns who are "random postcard town" who only get a few bucks a year. It's tough to say if they even make money vs losing money on that.

Decabytes 3y ago
I wonder if this could get handled at the county level. The money could be dispersed equitably by the county seat, and people could choose from a number of gifts provided by the towns in the county
- emodendroket 3y ago
  That's a good thought but why stop there? Why not have some kind of national government that collects tax dollars and apportions them according to need?
midoridensha 3y ago
>and the towns that can't afford that industry or don't have anything particularly commercializable to sell get left in the dust. What's wrong with this? If a town doesn't have anything to offer, then why does it exist at all? And why should anyone outside the town be supporting it to help its continued existence? The western US is full of "ghost towns": towns that used to exist back in the 1800s during the mining boom then, but when the mines dried up, so did the towns. The people all left and the town fell back to nature. These days, there's usually nothing left besides building foundations, if that. Small towns these days that have nothing left to offer should go the same way.

SamuelAdams 3y ago

[deleted, moved to parent discussion.]

minorannoyance2 3y ago

I hate to rain on your parade, but for every one town trying to "fulfill your dream", you'd get ten doing stuff like "donate to our square town in the triangle state you hate, and we will pass laws to own those triangles for you". Then add the Amazon HQ debacle and similar on top, and sprinkle some sweet madness during any campaign season (which is most of the time at this point). I'm pretty sure that making taxes "fun" is "fun" in the same way that NFTs are "fun" investing.

emodendroket 3y ago

I don't agree. The whole concept is diverting money from places that need it (the ones with all the residents) to places that don't. That was at least sentimentally understandable when people were sending tax dollars to places they have actual connections to, but once it becomes about securing some kind of consumer goods it doesn't even have that justification and will obviously benefit most municipalities which least need the help (since they will be most able to put together an appealing package). Anyway, if you want artisanal ham there are plenty of butchers who would appreciate your business.

kelnos 3y ago
Is that really the case, though? It seems like Tokyo (etc.) are still doing just fine, and a lot of the smaller towns that act as "feeders" for the big cities get a boost, which allows the small towns to do a better job of educating their kids, which directly helps the big cities later on. I think you maybe missed all the details in the article that explains why it's a little unfair that the small towns spend money to educate their citizens, but then don't get to reap the benefits of that education? I do agree with you that the end result in Japan is now a bit weird, since many people "pick their hometown" based on whatever gift/deal is available. But I think even in the original formulation, the benefits were much more than just "sentimental".
- lmm 3y ago
  The "small towns" that get the most money this way are those that produce the best products, which tend to be the ones that were already the most successful. The most desperate towns gain very little from this scheme because they don't have anything to offer. The only reason that Tokyo isn't benefitting the most of all is that it's specifically excluded from taking part. If the goal was to transfer some of Tokyo's tax income to towns that need it more, why not just do that, without all the complex bureaucracy and inefficient loss of tax revenue? If the beneficiary is meant to be the town that educated a person, why not run the system that way? (All that stuff is on record in Japan).
  - midoridensha 3y ago