I've been thinking about this for a while, and think it would be good for discussion. If YOU could choose your own taxes, where the money would go to, how much you would be taxed for, what would you do? Would you deny the army funding and leave us stuck in the mud? Or would you yank out all money that goes to welfare, thus fulfilling the dreams of many? How would you handle tax appropriation if the decision was up to you?

I wonder what all the liberals will say about welfare if it wasn't mandated...

You bring up a good idea, personal preferences in where my tax money goes. I am unsure if it would work well but still intriguing.

As for myself i would try and find a balance between defense needs and social programs if that makes any sense. Maintaining a strong military as well as a well educated and supported home population. Ying and Yang i guess, both equally important components for any society.

Ugh..sorry for the double post. Far as the amount of taxes paid that would depend on my income, i don't see the need for a huge amount of taxes paid if i am only making $25,000 a year but definitely a bigger portion if i was making say, $200,000 a year, a sliding scale is what i am getting at.

Well, first off, I don't fully know where all the money that we give the government goes, but I do know what I personally think are the MOST important things we should do with the money. These are just opinions.

I only like one tax system. Not the one we are in. The one which taxes all of our incomes based on stipulations including income and social situations. I also do not like the fair tax, which is the one where we pay a high sales tax on only the money we move through the economy by buying stuff. What I do like is a flat tax percentage across the board. Make a million dollars, pay X%. Make 5 thousand dollars, pay X% as well. This should go for taking money in and out of the stock market, lottery winnings, retirement funds, ECT. Nothing more or less than X% across the board with everything.

A lot of people are under the misconception that when we tax the rich people less, that money gets put away in a vault somewhere. What they have to understand is that this money is most certainly used. For starters...someone has to make those nice cars and houses that they own. Someone has to work at the fine restaurants. That set aside, lets say they put it in the stock market. Its not like that money disapears until they take it out. They invest it in businesses, which in turn expand, purchase, and hire. They can pay their current employess more, because more people will invest more in them, added to the fact that they themselves will be taxed less. These employees will have more money, and they will now most certainly spend it. Moving it through the economy. This will give companies an opputunity to lower prices and the need to manufacture more for the rise in demand. What if these rich people simply take the money and put it in the bank? All of the above. It is another misconception that money just sits in the back. In reality, the bank just does this investing for instead of us.

Now, as for what taxes should be used for.

1) National defense, and internal police should be the #1 priority of our government. Now remember, we run the government, not the other way around. We need to get that through our thick skulls so that we don't invoke some sort of police state. (this includes border defense)

2) Civil work such as roadways, railways, bus lines, maintanance, and so forth.

3) Technical research and progress. The people of this country are great because of our ability to use capitalism and the free market to exploit new ideas and innovations.

4) Very limited and restricted use of welfare and social security type programs. VERY LIMITED.

Now there are many other things that our government should be somewhat responsible for. These are the most important to me. You are probably wondering where education and healthcare rest. They don't I feel that as soon as the government sticks its dirty and corrupt hands into these types of field, everything gets screwed up.

Only problem with these ideas is that the government would have to cut back almost all of its wasted spending......



[Edited on 4/10/2004 by Seapeople]