Could Kickstarter be a workable taxation plan?

[GORDON]

I think it was Heinlein who said, "You want to tax me? How about you tell me what you want to buy for me and maybe I will buy it myself." More or less.

So now we have Kickstarter, where silly little plans can get funded, if they are popular. This makes me think... could this work as a taxation plan? "Main Street has some pot holes. It will cost $1k to fill them in. They don't get filled in until it gets funded."

Think it would work?

Perhaps a combination of low taxes to keep necessary infrastructure in working order so we don't have raw sewage running through the streets, and Kickstarter for less obvious things, like a new bridge over the local river, or the creation of a public commons, or whatever?

[TPRJones]

Given the current system, it would just pile on top and be an excuse for them to grab more money.

In a more perfect world without all our current baggage, it makes sense to me. A middle road would be something where the amount of your taxes is determined by law, but you get to have a saw in what area of expense some not insignificant piece of it goes.

[Cakedaddy]

The number of kickstarter programs we'd have to wade through to get to the one we actually wanted to pay into would be staggering.

[TheCatt]

I don't think it would be viable. Income distribution is pretty uneven, so the people with the most money would control what gets done. The rich currently subsidize the poor a lot via government/transfer payments, etc. Without being required to do it, I think very few people would.

People tend to be focused on just a few things/pet projects. Granted, with lots of people, the list could be pretty large, or you could end up with what we have for cancer research, where breast cancer has won the PR war.

[TPRJones]

It would certainly make a difference on the governmental side of the equation. It would inject a much needed shot of efficiency into the part where they spend the money and get the job done, because the less they need to do the job the more likely the job is to get funded.

[GORDON]

I'm wondering if this could work for very small, incorporated towns. You'd need a "good part of town" to pay for most things, obviously, but you sell it as, "If the poors have X then maybe they won't be wandering around in your neighborhood" or something like that.

[TPRJones]

These days the haves generally have enough to spare and when you couple that with modern first-world guilt they'll be ready enough to fund stuff for the have nots.

Charity is at all time highs, after all.

[Leisher]

Kickstarter is nothing more than online bake sales.

It isn't a realistic option for government usage because the rich would pay to get what they want, the poor wouldn't be able to spare the money, and most people simply wouldn't give a fuck or a cent.

[GORDON]

Buuuuuuut....... the richers Kickstart boons for themselves, and the poors get pissed, and the poors start causing trouble, and the richers decide that maybe giving the poors more distractions will keep them from getting uppity and cost them less in the long run.

It's basically the entire concept behind bread and circuses and reality TV to keep poor peeps from rioting, but in a voluntary, instead of coerced, way.

[Malcolm]

I'd prefer riots to reality TV.