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Yes, here's my reasoning: The Government has the ability to hire subject matter experts on a wide range of issues. They come up with plans to spend it and comp

Yes, here's my reasoning: The Government has the ability to hire subject matter experts on a wide range of issues. They come up with plans to spend it and compete with each other about whose plan is the best and try to make compelling arguments to elected or appointed officials to get funding. The inefficiencies come from the inevitable systematic abuses of bureaucracy: nepotism, greed, personal interest, etcetera etcetera. But, they still end up doing something and it's at least been thought through. Now, we come to my spending. I'll go through several hypothetical situations. First, no income tax has been taken from me at all: I spend the money on stupid garbage (video games, comic books, movies, camera equipment, etcetera) or squirrel it away in an investment (as I noted, nice to have more, but I'm making investments anyway). The common good is not served, I have more stuff I probably don't need anyway, the world falls into chaos. Second, I don't get to spend my taxed money on myself, but have to spend it towards the common good as I so choose: I put it towards a pet project that I think is worthwhile. In my case, it would be to sponsor free programming education for kids. I always thought the computer classes in school were lame and I'd like to see kids get a better introduction at a young age. Scale this up by 300 million people: Nice sounding projects to feed the homeless and provide specialized education to kids and plant gardens etcetera are supremely well funded, but there's no public police department, no public fire department, no public roads, public transportation, center for disease control, EPA, FDA, and all the other acronyms that ensure that you don't get fucking raped by some business that has enough money to buyout the private landowners to do whatever the fuck it wants to do. Finally, I'm tasked with spending the money in such a way as to form the most ideal society as possible: Shit, I don't know what the fuck I'm doing, can't someone else take care of this? Thus, the government. So, no, I would definitely be more incompetent than the government when it comes to using money for the common good. I would be terrible. Also, don't go telling me that the private sector would be better at it, because brother, I've worked in a private organization that's as large as a small government, and they are filled to the fucking BRIM with bullshit. Personally, I've always been of the mind that we should be working on automated systems to handle this sort of thing. Cold, unfeeling automata dedicated towards the most efficient dispersal of public funds. Unmotivated by emotional pleas and the suffering of the individual. Steely, ruthless, determined. But no one else seems to like that idea and I don't know how to build it.

solutionyogi 17y ago
Wow. You left me speechless. In your earlier post, you mentioned that Government excels at wasting the taxpayer's money and you still want to give them money for the 'common good'. [Personally, I am scared of everyone who talks about common good.] Have you ever thought about why government wastes money? As Milton Friedman put is succinctly, There are 3 ways to spend money. 1. Your money on yourself. [e.g. buying a car for yourself] 2. Your money on someone else. [e.g. buying a birthday gift for your friend.] 3. Someone else's money on someone else. [Your beloved government.] Ask yourself, out of these 3 scenarios, which one will get you the most bang for the buck? Yes, scenario 1, where you make sure that you get most out of your hard earned money. And you can bet that there will be tremendous waste of money in scenario 3, no exceptions. So my friend, tell me, why should I give my hard earned money to Government when I know that it will be wasted? Keeping the waste argument aside, let me talk about your comment that you think you are terrible at using your own money. Have you thought that not everyone thinks that they are not good with their money? [e.g. I think I am good at managing my money]. Just because you are not, is it fair for you to suggest higher tax rate for everyone? What about my freedom to decide what should I do with my own money? Mind you, I am not suggesting that there should not be any taxes. Only thing I am suggesting is that government taxes & their role in our day to day life should be minimum.
- DannoHung 17y ago
  You're completely misunderstanding my point: A little bit beyond subsistence, my money goes towards frivolous expenditures that have a significantly diminishing ROI in terms of happiness. I'm not running a business here. I'm just a dude. I don't have profits, I don't have shareholders, I can't issue dividends; maximizing my assets or cash on hand isn't going to make me feel a whole lot better. SO, if I am given more money, it isn't going to actually DO a whole lot for me, personally. Also, let me rephrase what I was saying about being bad about spending money: I'm not bad about managing it. I save much of my disposable income. I don't buy more than I earn. I don't have any credit problems. But when I do spend money beyond the basic necessities, it is nearly inevitably on things that aren't bettering me or the people around me. I don't make the world a better place when I dispose of my income. And if I had more money to just SPEND, I wouldn't actually be any happier for it.

solutionyogi 17y ago

Wow. You left me speechless. In your earlier post, you mentioned that Government excels at wasting the taxpayer's money and you still want to give them money for the 'common good'. [Personally, I am scared of everyone who talks about common good.] Have you ever thought about why government wastes money? As Milton Friedman put is succinctly, There are 3 ways to spend money. 1. Your money on yourself. [e.g. buying a car for yourself] 2. Your money on someone else. [e.g. buying a birthday gift for your friend.] 3. Someone else's money on someone else. [Your beloved government.] Ask yourself, out of these 3 scenarios, which one will get you the most bang for the buck? Yes, scenario 1, where you make sure that you get most out of your hard earned money. And you can bet that there will be tremendous waste of money in scenario 3, no exceptions. So my friend, tell me, why should I give my hard earned money to Government when I know that it will be wasted? Keeping the waste argument aside, let me talk about your comment that you think you are terrible at using your own money. Have you thought that not everyone thinks that they are not good with their money? [e.g. I think I am good at managing my money]. Just because you are not, is it fair for you to suggest higher tax rate for everyone? What about my freedom to decide what should I do with my own money? Mind you, I am not suggesting that there should not be any taxes. Only thing I am suggesting is that government taxes & their role in our day to day life should be minimum.

DannoHung 17y ago
You're completely misunderstanding my point: A little bit beyond subsistence, my money goes towards frivolous expenditures that have a significantly diminishing ROI in terms of happiness. I'm not running a business here. I'm just a dude. I don't have profits, I don't have shareholders, I can't issue dividends; maximizing my assets or cash on hand isn't going to make me feel a whole lot better. SO, if I am given more money, it isn't going to actually DO a whole lot for me, personally. Also, let me rephrase what I was saying about being bad about spending money: I'm not bad about managing it. I save much of my disposable income. I don't buy more than I earn. I don't have any credit problems. But when I do spend money beyond the basic necessities, it is nearly inevitably on things that aren't bettering me or the people around me. I don't make the world a better place when I dispose of my income. And if I had more money to just SPEND, I wouldn't actually be any happier for it.