Yes, we need roads, we need fire fighters and some of that stuff. However, it should all be financed privately.
So you propose making the 'gap' between the haves and the have-nots into a wall. No ambulance is coming to help you...because you are poor. Your house is burning to the ground...because you're poor. Your children will be doomed to a life of abject squalor because you are so busy scraping and stealing to feed them that you have no time to educate them, that is, if they don't die of pertussis or rubella, because there is no vaccination program or standards without taxes.
ok I'm not totally behind Corner his idea to privately finance everything, would be a little bit a big hassle, if everybody needs to maintain his own little piece of road before his house and I think it would be nice to get it in concrete and my neigbour thinks dirt is much better and his neighbour would like to use bricks, nah nice roads we would have.
Taxes are necessary, but
I should have the choice where
my money goes to, at this point my money goes to things like various beliefs I don't support, people who don't want to work (I don't care to give you like 3 months wage if you are unemployed but don't tell me you can't find a job within 15years), etc. and the things I find important like science and good roads, just don't get enough funds. So yeah at the moment I drive over the border Holland-Belgium and remember the roads I've driven and the thing my car bumps over at that moment I got a little bit the feeling I was robbed. I give away 50% of my wage for good roads and what do I get? An unemployed driving the same car as me flashing his lights because he got to be in time at the moskee, church,... whatever meetingplace comes into your mind to tell each other fairytales. No, at the moment I fill in my tax form I want to choose where the money will be used for. Everybody can just fill in where the money goes to and those funds should be used for what you filled in. If you want to give it to the firedepartment so it will be, if I want to give it to medical healthcare so it will be, that's in my opinion the only way you can get a fair taxsystem.
You could even go further and let the people vote on witch company can do the job, witch building constructor to choose, witch hospitals, witch firedepartments, and so on
But some people saying, here with your money and we will take care of it, is not the way to do it imho.
You do have a say where your taxes go, and who gets awarded those lucrative contracts...ever been to a city council meeting? I assume that a progressive European society has some equivalent...
Letting people 'choose where their money is spent' is ridiculous. Half of the world is of average or below-average intelligence. You trust them to invest in more than short sited thrill seeking? I hope you like your waterparks...your utopia will be filled with them.
Actually, no we don't have city council meetings or some equivalent over here
And the choice if your money goes to believe or not is actually something a lot of people want here and is only a matter of time before we will get that 1 choice on our taxform. I don't see why more options would form a problem, and I think you are smart enough to understand that waterparks don't need to be on the list of choices. But hey on the other hand, a country that looks like one big giant waterpark should drive lots of tourists bringing in lots of money don't you think
No, I still believe in choices and I think most people are smart enough to make the right decision if you give them the right choices or at least the majority of people. Most people in the world also think that a country without a government for 1 year and 1 month would fall into total anarchy, plundering, murdering, raping,a total financial crisis, etc *looks through the window* yep, my car is still there with the gps and radio still in it and it still has 4 rims to stand on. Everything just goes like it always did, economical it doesn't really hurt us, roads are as bad as they used to be and crimes are the same like they always where and everybody just does his job like he always did. Some foreign investors are a little bit worried but looks like they are not that worried to not invest or run away like hell. So yes I have enough faith in the people here that they also can make the right choices, could it work everywhere and immediately? No, Rome wasn't build in a day and a taxsystem like this needs to be worked out step by step. People got to get used to it, and one choice at a time.
And yes I am a dreamer, and some things I think may seem totally irrational, but without dreamers a lot of good inventions/ideas wouldn't exist.