Robin Garwood wrote: It's unfortunate, because you actually raise a really good philosophical question: should we, as citizens, be forced to pay taxes for things we morally oppose? I tend to agree with you, Neal. I would love to know that none of my tax dollars went to the pentagon, new build highway, nuclear plants, coal industry subsidies, etc.
Here's a creative solution: rather than tax dollars being budgeted by legislatures, let's create the budgets as taxpayers. Your yearly tax form could include an allocation sheet that would allow you to choose where your dollars go, and exempt them from projects with which you morally disagree. We could turn April 15th into a celebration of democracy - I'd love paying taxes if I knew where my money was going. Mark Anderson replies: You know there's a much simpler way of allowing us to spend our money the way we want to: don't tax us in the first place and we can spend our money where we want to. There's a whole lot of areas in which I would like government not to spend my money, including most of the areas Robin mentioned above. But I also oppose employee controls, trade control, and other infringements on individual freedom. I would love to just argue with people on Lists like this about the rationality of personally boycotting various big businesses. But instead I'm also fighting the government who is using my money to insert themselves in the middle of private transactions such as hiring, firing, buying, and selling. This activity feels immoral to me. I assume I can count on you, Robin, to be in my corner on this. You and like minded people can spend all your money on those causes you find so worth spending money on. Others who believe more money should go to the pentagon, highways, nuclear plants, or the coal industry can spend their money on those things. Much simpler than setting up another massive bureaucracy to trace the taxes to each person's favored target, as you suggested above. Admittedly, we may still need some tax money to spend on public goods, such as the court system and protection of the air and water we all use. There may be some people morally opposed to these uses also, but the spending would be a tenth of our current taxes, so 90% of the problem would be resolved. About as good as can be expected in our complex society. Good idea, Robin! Mark V Anderson Bancroft REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
