Budgets and People

Leaf · Post by **Leaf** » Mon Jan 31, 2005 1:07 pm

So, I had this brainstorm idea... and maybe it's already been done, I don't know... however, here it is.

Imagine a website where you could enter teh estmated amount of tax (sales, GST, PST, whatever your countries equivilant is...) and your income tax, or whatever, but then dictate what government programs you want it spent on... (gimme missle # 6 ... and I want a photo when it's launched!!!) I wonder what a model spreadsheet of that would look like?

Well, I don't really have a website, nor the time to build one, but HEY!! Post your thoughts....

Maybe you don't want to put down your tax estimate here, cause your worried people will extrapolate your income... so fake it then... but here is mine:

I figure I paid out $4000 in sales taxes and 17,000 in income tax, for an estimated total of 21,000.
Using the following categories (for rough consumption..loosley based on the Canadian budget for 2004.)

EDUCATION
HEALTH CARE
FOREIGN POLICY
ARTS AND SPORTS
MILITARY/NATIONAL SECURITY
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENTS
ECONOMY

I got 8 categories.... I assume I'm missing something, but this is a vague survey.... however... I would personally allocate the following:

EDUCATION 5,250
HEALTH CARE 5,250
FOREIGN POLICY 2000
ARTS AND SPORTS 2000
MILITARY/NATIONAL SECURITY 500
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT 2000
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENTS 2000
ECONOMY : 2000

What would you do....

jack · Post by **jack** » Mon Jan 31, 2005 1:49 pm

national security...$500?!? dude, what are you gonna do, beat em over the heads with your hockey sticks?

rely on big bro? hehe....don't get that started again....

Hoblit · Post by **Hoblit** » Mon Jan 31, 2005 3:58 pm

jack shite wrote:national security...$500?!? dude, what are you gonna do, beat em over the heads with your hockey sticks?

rely on big bro? hehe....don't get that started again....

H a H a

thats the first thing I thought...

Dude, none of that other stuff is worth a crap if you can't defend it. Then I thought, oh... you expect US to do that for ya...

Smiley face, I promise I'm kidding.

Phil. Redmon. · Post by **Phil. Redmon.** » Mon Jan 31, 2005 4:16 pm

What does that 2000 in economy go to?

economy?

Seriously, put all my shit in R&D and get us the fuck off this dead planet.

Leaf · Post by **Leaf** » Mon Jan 31, 2005 4:32 pm

Well, I figure 2 grand to pay down the debt or job creation/development, and
500 bucks for military cause if every Canadian put in 500$ it would equal 18 Billion dollars....

but the thing is... this is what I would spend my tax dollars on. So far, Phil is putting his tax dollars in to R&D.... see this is what I was curious about... what would you put your money into? And how would the population 's individual choices compare to what our governments are already doing? Would it average out to a rough mirror of what already happens? What is the will of the people compared to the decisions of the bureaucrats??

Hoblit · Post by **Hoblit** » Mon Jan 31, 2005 5:53 pm

EDUCATION **
HEALTH CARE $750 + $439
FOREIGN POLICY $750
ARTS AND SPORTS $750
MILITARY/NATIONAL SECURITY $750
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT $750
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENTS **
ECONOMY : $84

$3,834 <-- Federal Income Tax (of course I did this without thinking about the amount I will receive back as a refund)

$1,882 <-- Social Security (I'd gladly spend that extra $84 on this instead)

$439 <-- Medicare (I totaly count this against Healthcare)

** I have no idea what my sales tax would be. There is no state tax in Florida. Florida has a relatively high sales tax and all of my sales tax goes to local state departments. This includes Education on the local level and I fully support that as well as my local police and would if given the choice, and show above...I'd spread it pretty evenly accross the board there too. One of the problems here in Tampa Bay is that the propreation of funds varies wildly because of the area being heavily touristy. The Beach folk complain that the city of St. Petersburg takes the revenue made from the beaches and spends too much of it on Downtown and that sort of thing. Not such a problem in Tampa because Tampa recycles it alot in one area. It's downtown which features historic Ybor City with night life, the port is downtown, and the ritzy hotels are all located downtown. So, you get the folks who live just outside of downtown complaining that the city doesn't do enough for them. *Hoblit throws hands up.

Me$$iah · Post by **Me$$iah** » Mon Jan 31, 2005 7:08 pm

Hey Hoblit

I like that idead dude

I would using your figures Id take a 1000 off edudation and health and add em to the foriegn policy(development) and arts funding

and i would split the arts sports budget weighted heavily toward the arts(obviously) and i would fund more obsure sports like archery or fencing as opposed to th more trad types like football or hockey

and I dont really understand the 2000 for the economy so I d spend less there but if 2000 is wats needed there then cool I dont uderstand wat you mean so I just dont know but all i saved there would go RnD

And dont start the |big bro again I really dont wanna
Im trying to quit dontcha know

Mogosagatai · Post by **Mogosagatai** » Mon Jan 31, 2005 8:49 pm

Me$$iah wrote:and i would split the arts sports budget weighted heavily toward the arts(obviously)

How's that obvious?

Caravan Ray · Post by **Caravan Ray** » Mon Jan 31, 2005 9:26 pm

Mogosagatai wrote:
Me$$iah wrote:and i would split the arts sports budget weighted heavily toward the arts(obviously)
How's that obvious?

Because sport is something that people are actually interested in, and like to watch, hence it can generate a lot of it owns funds.

Nobody wants to watch 'the arts' though of course. Arts funding is simply something to help keep 'arty' people off the street and out of everybody's way. Nobody wants to be constantly tripping over pasty-faced weedy little gits with goatees, bad haircuts and skivvies, blasting out their Joanna Newsome CD's and complaining how Dan Brown has set back literature 50 years. No, I'm more than happy for some of my tax dollars to go towards rounding this lot up and locking them away in a "workshop" somewhere so that I'll no longer be assaulted by unsolicited mime re-enactments of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand or other morsels of avant-garde street theatre and performance wankery.

j$ · Post by j$ » Tue Feb 01, 2005 1:52 am

There is plenty of art in sports, but no sport in the arts.

It's Joanna Newsom by the way, CR, and the album's quite good, although as predicted by me some months back, quite samey.

j$

mico saudad · Post by **mico saudad** » Wed Mar 16, 2005 4:49 pm

http://www.budgetsim.org/nbs/longbudget04.html

HeuristicsInc · Post by **HeuristicsInc** » Wed Mar 16, 2005 11:03 pm

that looks a lot like work...
not even some sample budgets to look at ?
-bill

Leaf · Post by **Leaf** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 9:28 am

I think it's pretty cool... gonna play with it later... THE BUDGET toy people, the BUDGET toy.

mico saudad · Post by **mico saudad** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 11:26 am

HeuristicsInc wrote:that looks a lot like work...
not even some sample budgets to look at ?
-bill

Many people in congress appear to have the same feelings about the budget.

Leaf · Post by **Leaf** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 12:42 pm

abecedarian wrote:
HeuristicsInc wrote:that looks a lot like work...
not even some sample budgets to look at ?
-bill
Many people in congress appear to have the same feelings about the budget.

hahaha!!

HeuristicsInc · Post by **HeuristicsInc** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 1:56 pm

this would be one reason why i'm not in congress...
-bill

mico saudad · Post by **mico saudad** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 3:17 pm

HeuristicsInc wrote:this would be one reason why i'm not in congress...
-bill

I guess that sounded like a flame on you but I totally didn't mean it that way. I like bill. My temporary bitterness was directed at congress - I've been watching way too much CSPAN lately (hearing them talk about the new budget just irks the crap out of me).

HeuristicsInc · Post by **HeuristicsInc** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 4:44 pm

Heh, thanks for the vote of confidence. I figured you were joking and made a joke of my own... no flames here. I listened to the CSPAN budget talks last night myself. Man that budget is crappy.
-bill