4 ms·

I dont want the govt to fund any research funding. As a tax payer i did not vote this. I want to decide who i fund or not. It just means, my taxes will not go d

by okr 2y ago

I dont want the govt to fund any research funding. As a tax payer i did not vote this. I want to decide who i fund or not. It just means, my taxes will not go down. :/

encrypted_bird 2y ago
I suppose then you won't get nearly as much medical research, technological research, scientific research. Seriously, you may not realize just how much genuine academic research at colleges, universities, and technical institutes rely on government grants. At least that's how it is in the US. I'm unsure how different, if at all, it is in Germany.
- throwaway2037 2y ago
  Tip: All highly industrialised, wealthy nations are the same. Central govt provides huge sums for academic research with the hope that it can be commercialised.
  - hobofan 2y ago
    In many fields of study, the money that goes into academic research is essentially more of high-level-talent education expense, so that local companies have pools of PhDs to hire from, rather than needing to produce a invention that will be commercialized. E.g. if you look at PhD graduates only one in a few hundred (even in STEM fields) will end up on a path that commercializes their research, with most of the other ones moving into industry and likely not working on a directly related subject to their thesis. That's not necessarily a bad thing.
paveroadstax 2y ago
[flagged]
illiac786 2y ago
That does not scale. We cannot ask every single citizen about every single decision. You want to decide on each funding. The next will want to decide on every tax law change. Government decides, and if majority of population thinks they’re doing a shit job and someone else can do a less shot job they get replaced after a couple of years. Otherwise it’s micromanagement hell.
- okr 2y ago
  I disagree. Lets say i own 100 percent of my money. Just that i have to write it down, makes me shiver, what we as people accept to happen. Am i interested in progress? Of course. Am i not smart enough to see or think long term, most likely. Give me a robo advisor, that helps me distribute my money. Give me best practises. I do not need a bloated government and their politics and interest groups for a simple decision, what i do with MY money that I have earned by working. Govt is the middle management that everyone complains about. A black hole.
  - illiac786 2y ago
    I don’t get it. You want everyone to decide what they do with their taxes? roads in the middle of nowhere would never get maintained for example. Orphan sickness would see even less research than they do today. Etc.
    - okr 2y ago
      Roads in the middle of nowhere are not needed, of course i would not want that. I want them there where they are needed. Like, connecting two big citied with a lot of nowhere in between. I want the robo advisor to make that calculation for me. And the other thing: yeah, people know, what charity is. But there is no big charity, if the welfare state already takes half of your money. The responsibility to take care of people around you is offloaded to an anonymous entity.
      - illiac786 2y ago
        Ok, that means you think that everyone should move away from countryside and into cities. I think that illustrates very well the problem with your approach. Minorities have zero chances of being represented. The argument about charity and tax levels is not substantiated by any research as far as I can tell. There is however research showing that rich people give LESS to charity proportionally, compared to poorer people. Making charity donations tax deductible, that does help though.
carlosjobim 2y ago
The government has two jobs: 1. Steal your money, 2. Send you to die in a war. Unless your country is a war, that means they can focus entirely on stealing your money. You're never going to be able to change that. The only thing you can do is protect your money outside their reach. Then you can decide freely how it is used.

by okr 2y ago

I dont want the govt to fund any research funding. As a tax payer i did not vote this. I want to decide who i fund or not. It just means, my taxes will not go down. :/

encrypted_bird 2y ago

I suppose then you won't get nearly as much medical research, technological research, scientific research. Seriously, you may not realize just how much genuine academic research at colleges, universities, and technical institutes rely on government grants. At least that's how it is in the US. I'm unsure how different, if at all, it is in Germany.

throwaway2037 2y ago
Tip: All highly industrialised, wealthy nations are the same. Central govt provides huge sums for academic research with the hope that it can be commercialised.
- hobofan 2y ago
  In many fields of study, the money that goes into academic research is essentially more of high-level-talent education expense, so that local companies have pools of PhDs to hire from, rather than needing to produce a invention that will be commercialized. E.g. if you look at PhD graduates only one in a few hundred (even in STEM fields) will end up on a path that commercializes their research, with most of the other ones moving into industry and likely not working on a directly related subject to their thesis. That's not necessarily a bad thing.

paveroadstax 2y ago

[flagged]

illiac786 2y ago

That does not scale. We cannot ask every single citizen about every single decision. You want to decide on each funding. The next will want to decide on every tax law change. Government decides, and if majority of population thinks they’re doing a shit job and someone else can do a less shot job they get replaced after a couple of years. Otherwise it’s micromanagement hell.

okr 2y ago
I disagree. Lets say i own 100 percent of my money. Just that i have to write it down, makes me shiver, what we as people accept to happen. Am i interested in progress? Of course. Am i not smart enough to see or think long term, most likely. Give me a robo advisor, that helps me distribute my money. Give me best practises. I do not need a bloated government and their politics and interest groups for a simple decision, what i do with MY money that I have earned by working. Govt is the middle management that everyone complains about. A black hole.
- illiac786 2y ago
  I don’t get it. You want everyone to decide what they do with their taxes? roads in the middle of nowhere would never get maintained for example. Orphan sickness would see even less research than they do today. Etc.
  - okr 2y ago
    Roads in the middle of nowhere are not needed, of course i would not want that. I want them there where they are needed. Like, connecting two big citied with a lot of nowhere in between. I want the robo advisor to make that calculation for me. And the other thing: yeah, people know, what charity is. But there is no big charity, if the welfare state already takes half of your money. The responsibility to take care of people around you is offloaded to an anonymous entity.
    - illiac786 2y ago
      Ok, that means you think that everyone should move away from countryside and into cities. I think that illustrates very well the problem with your approach. Minorities have zero chances of being represented. The argument about charity and tax levels is not substantiated by any research as far as I can tell. There is however research showing that rich people give LESS to charity proportionally, compared to poorer people. Making charity donations tax deductible, that does help though.

carlosjobim 2y ago

The government has two jobs: 1. Steal your money, 2. Send you to die in a war. Unless your country is a war, that means they can focus entirely on stealing your money. You're never going to be able to change that. The only thing you can do is protect your money outside their reach. Then you can decide freely how it is used.