Goss over at Project Antares has declared Wednesdays to be his What If Wednesday days, where he tosses out whatever idea has been percolating in his brain amongst all the stories and other creative pursuits. Last week he suggested the following:
What if– instead of just sending an amount of money to the IRS every year, every single taxpaying american could itemize their taxes?
What if those on the Right Wing could actually specifically ensure that their taxes were not going to be spent on social programs, but on national defense?
What if the informed people of the Progressive Left could specifically choose, on their tax form, the programs that their taxes would be funding, and protect their money from being given to bloodthirsty mercenaries euphemized as ‘private contractors’ as they murder innocent civilians in other countries?
What if every american, right or left, red or blue, had the comfort of knowing that their money was going toward the america that they envision?
It’s a fascinating idea, but I don’t see how it could possibly work. In Goss’s comment section, I argued that the notion is inherently undemocratic because it gives vastly unequal control over the government to different citizens based on income and taxes paid. In this week’s installment, Goss is kind enough to call me “informed and articulate” while giving no ground. (Which surprised me not at all.) He also tries to spell out in a little more detail how the initial planning of such a program would work. I confess I would need to see a lot more detail before I started to come around. I’m just thinking there would be so many ways to game such a system. If you only used broad categories, lawmakers could find ways to earmark their desired programs into whichever category had money in the budget. If you tried to get specific, taxpayers would be inundated with minutiae that would make the proposition system seem like a walk in the park.
Truth be told, I’m suspicious of Goss’s taxation idea for many of the same reasons I’m suspicious of the proposition/referendum system. On the surface it seems like a way to give citizens more direct control. But without building in any kind of institutional framework to help citizens understand the relevant issues and consider various aspects of a problem, it actually reduces the opportunities for deliberation, intelligent problem-solving, and community-building.