I know i'll get a bit of flack for this, but i really think it's time for a rewrite, in keeping with the spirit of the original doc..

It's just that, with language drift, new technologies and a radically changed political landscape, it seems terribly difficult to uphold the constitution as the founders intended.

also, something about services being for the greater good mightn't go astray..
Seriously, as a 3rd party watching the election roll on, i can't help but noticed that two of the biggest problems in America today (education and healthcare) are completely absent from the debates.. I just can't quite figure out why.. I also can't work out why socialism gets such a bad rap, since it seems that most countries with capitalist style trade and socially oriented welfare and healthcare are doing alright (less poor, smaller divide between rich and poor, etc.. note that this is totally anecdotal.).

It also seems that there is a strong sense that, at any given time, at least half the government is absolutely evil.. While i don't necessarily disagree, i do feel that the rabid political jingoism is actually detrimental to the nation as a whole, and the very fact that the two party system is so heavily ingrained in the minds of voters and also in the system makes the whole process somewhat farcical.. Not, of course, that i can see anything better in practice..

Nb, this is a work in progress. Feel free to critique, call me a fag, enemy of freedom, etc, etc..

So i was thinking..

Assumption A: all public works must be a community effort, they don't just magically appear.

Assumption B: Not all people want to directly contribute, and that's why there are national taxes. (yes, i know it was all once about kings and their arbitrary wants.. The metaphor has shifted, k?)

Assumption C: people sometimes take specific issue with how their tax dollars are spent.. (look guys, sometimes it just sounds like what you're saying is 'i deserve that money, AND roads, electricity, gas, distribution networks', etc, etc.. you're like anal retentive children sometimes with the i want i want i want... you're lucky the rest of us even pay attention to you.)

what about a system of income taxation that comes with an intention questionnaire? Totally optional, of course.. but if you could nominate, from a selection of projects, or just in a number of fields (e.g education, infrastructure, healthcare, etc..) or subcategories thereof (eg. schools, roads, rail, hospitals, etc..)

These preferences could be used to derive the budget for that particular project, such that popular projects would end up with more funding from individuals, but less popular projects might need to get their budget elsewhere.

Note that this would be in addition to other taxes (yeah, you have them..) and could be used for some percentage, etc, etc... If the money isn't used up by a certain time, it could be added to the global budget pool, or surplus if that exists. Also, those who don't nominate specific projects will automatically have their tax dollars added to the global pool

Note also that this probably won't go down well with real conservatives because of the amount of manpower that is likely to be involved.

I've seen a nominations system similar to this for .au superannuation, though i don't know if it's something done only by some groups, only here in .au, etc.. the superannuation system is somewhat different, since it's effectively an investment portfolio, but the idea is there..

This thought brought to you by a jcr post on federal funding of schools. The man has a valid point, but the money has to come from somewhere..

You know guys, i actually read this site for the news. Sometimes (when i can be bothered/have the time/am procrastinating REALLY HARD) i post.

Not that often tho.

In the last few weeks, i've managed to shift my karma from positive to excellent by following a few little guidelines that i noticed, and that seemed to work well. Here is a brief list of things i have noticed about karmawhoring.

1) Post quick. More people view an article right after it has been posted. More people = more votes.

2) post closer to the root of the thread. Less people seem to be willing to look at/moderate shorter threads.

3) replying to anons won't get you modded up. If people browse at +1, they'll most likely never see your post (unless they have the reparent option turned on, and then you'll just lose context.)

I didn't really go out of my way to get karma.. that is, i only posted on stuff that actually interested me, i DID reply to anons (especially those ones who trolled me, hi guys!) and i often had drawn out conversations (well, several posts) that i knew no one else would ever read.

If having good karma is important to you (i dunno, maybe you like the idea of everyone seeing what you write) then actually following those rules should give you good results.

Disclaimer: results are anecdotal. I don't claim to know anything specific about the mod system, i certainly don't know the inner workings, and i have a reasonably high UID. Oh yeah, comments are on. Troll away, kids. ;)

Added Stonecypher to my friends list, simply because of the informative pwnage handed out in this post. As a newb software developer/writer/game system designer, this info was supervaluable.