Call it a social experiment

I was just reading this interesting article in the NY Times - the author brings up an interesting point on taxes. (Some of the comments are even more interesting, if you check them out). It's important that people pay taxes - to quote one of the comments "taxation is just the means to pay for public goods that we all want: security, clean air, transportation infrastructure, courts of law etc." (Don't forget libraries, too!!^_~ )

Someone else commented that the problem is people hate paying taxes that they don't think the government is spending well. Which brings me to my question:

Why can't citizens tell the government where they want their money to go at tax time?

What I really mean here is this: Add a short section on the Fed tax form. All would do is put a check next to the general area you want your taxes to go - education, defense, research, etc. Not choosing a specific pet cause, just saying - I think this is important, I want to fund this. Similar to the option to donate some of your income to charities - they already have that on there, why not let us choose the broad area in which the government spends our hard-earned cash? Let people choose 1 or 2 areas, put most of that person's tax dollars into those areas, with, say, 10 to 15% going into a general fund to supplement things where needed.

Yes, people would still be upset because they wouldn't feel their pet cause was getting enough support, or they'd decide that congress wasn't spending the money in that area well. But what you would get is a better idea of what Americans truly feel is important. Even more so than in a poll - those only sample parts of the population, and they can be skewed, no matter how well the poll is conducted. Add a tiny point to the tax form, and you'd get an answer from most of the nation - everyone who files their taxes that year.

Sure, there are concerns in doing this - some areas might not get enough funding at all - it's really hard to tell without actually asking every person in the US how they want their tax dollars spent. That's why the experiment - try it out next year, and tally up how Americans want their taxes spent - if it's way too skewed, don't use it, or only use it as an indication of where politicians ought to consider spending more money. I have a feeling, considering how varied people are, that most everything would get a semi-decent amount of funding. If not, those areas that receive only a small amount will know better how the country views them, and can start learning why and trying to improve.

I'll admit I have my own concerns about how well this would actually work - I know that funding for libraries, for example, might very well drop off, and it would probably lead to a campaign-like atmosphere in the months leading up to tax time, with different spending areas trying to convince Americans to give them money. But I feel like it's something that ought to be done. Yes, people will still be dissatisfied with how their money is spent - they always will be. But I think we could all learn a lot from this, and I feel that a lot of Americans would be happy to know that their money, at least, went into something they value.

After all, in a democracy, the government is supposed to look out for the people's interests - shouldn't they know, for sure and certain, what those interests are?