What if we could vote with our tax dollars?

[proud2BlibKansan]

I got this idea from a war monger who pulled up in front of us the other night, rolled down his window and asked if any of us were withholding our taxes to protest against funding the Iraq War. We told him of course we weren't since that was against the law. He just laughed and drove on.

But I got to thinking about that. What if the war mongers could designate their tax dollars go to funding the war, the talibornagains could designate their tax dollars go towards preventing gay marriage, and the paleocons (as Marcos Zuniga calls them) could have their tax dollars go to fighting immigration?

I of course would refuse to fund the war, and ask that my tax dollars go to funding education and health care.

I also think that if you choose not to pay for a social program, you shouldn't be able to use it. Don't want your tax dollars paying for public education? Fine, but your kids can't go to public school for free - they must pay tuition. Don't want to fund universal health care? No problem - but if you get sick, you get to pay your own medical bills.

So what do you think? Or is this just too silly?

[orwell]

1. It's a great idea...

...that wouldn't work. It eliminates one of the basics tenets of taxation, that of shared social responsibility.

You can make a great difference however in corporate priorities by changing your own spending habits. If everyone who didn't support the war mongers began by no longer buying products that the war mongers sell, we can begin to "defund" them. For example, cut your gasoline use by 15 to 20%. stop buying products from multinational imperialists like Coca Cola, Dole, or Citicorp. If we start at home, with our day to day decisions, we can have an impact.

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. I have been doing that

but I feel like I am the only one who doesn't buy Coke or Exxon Mobil gas or shop at Walmart. I see zero effect from my personal boycotts on these corporations. el pretzeldente and his evil administration has so favored big business that they thrive even without my business - and would continue to thrive even if there were thousands doing as I do. (And I think there are.)

As for social responsibility, my plan would reduce the number of Americans we are responsible for. You don't pay in, you don't take out.

[orwell]

13. It does make a difference...

...You just don't see the immediate effects.

The fastest growing segment of the food industry by far is organic foods. One of the best performing grocery stocks in the US is Whole Foods Market. There is a big move away from trans fats in food. Major cereal producers are going whole grain. Walmart is starting to green itself, probably as a marketing ploy, but it is still happening. You are starting to see a lot more organics on its food shelves. They are changing their recycling and packaging to be more green. Alternatives are the fastest growing segment of the energy market. Hybrids are the fastest growing segment of the automobile market. Nutriceuticals are one of the fastest growing segments in the "wellness" trend. At one time, these concepts were considered "leftist" and "hippie". They are now being embraced by large corporations as "mainstream."

Where money flows, corporate america will eventually respond. They have to or they will cease to exist. It is supply and demand.

Follow the money.

[ComerPerro]

2. If that's the case, get ready for some really bigoted spending...

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. Well I disagree

I believe the large majority of Americans are decent people who do feel a sense of social responsibility.

Only 30% support the war. Let them try to continue fighting it with 30% of the money.

[bryant69]

4. I don't think it would work

I think we need to all have the feeling that we are in the same boat - and this woudl give us the illusion that we are all in our own boats.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. But we aren't all in the same boat

There is a civil war in this country right now.

[bryant69]

7. Perhaps you should read Abraham Lincoln's speeches

They might give you something to consider, if you really believe that we are in the midst of a civil war.

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. Perhaps you should read free republic

or even the Wall Street Journal if you don't think we are deeply divided in the USA today.

[bryant69]

10. I never said we wern't deeply divided

And I read the Wall Street Journal regularly - and Townhall (which collects Conservative Columns).

But are we to become a balkanized divided state? Or to remain one people?

"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds." - Abraham Lincoln

[proud2BlibKansan]

11. I doubt the other side is interested in healing any wounds.

[Rosemary2205]

9. You'd see war mongering dry up overnight.

If only the war supporters paid the taxes you'd see them all suddenly decide maybe Saddam ain't so bad afterall.

[proud2BlibKansan]

12. That's kinda my point