Things we desperately need in Michigan:

- Better teacher's pay
- Fix the roads

Why doesn't the government tax us less in lieu of starting an IndieGoGo-type campaign for infrastructural improvements?

Why don't they sell lottery tickets for educational funding?

Are you saying the government couldn't be trusted to appropriate the funds for a Kickstarter?

How about we kill the poor?

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=free+rider+problem

Old people don't care about education.

What does this have to do with there being a non zero amount of people who would donate money towards fixing the roads?

Just saying your idiotically simplistic ideas have been thoroughly examined and debunked by actual intelligent people.

Not that I expect you to care.

Show me the economic theory exploring paying for public goods being unable to compete with sending webcam girls to college.

Because you sure would not be able to explain why this is.

Yes, I can't explain the nonsensical word salad you just spewed. Good point.

You aren't aware of the strength of crowdsourcing on the internet and how bad the roads are in Michigan, right?

Those sure are two completely unrelated items you've stuck together. Well done. Parents must be proud.

It's not like Wikipedia raises millions of dollars via the internet to provide a public good.

So that's a "no" on you being interested in learning anything. Gotcha.

Low Key, do you think you are the shining example of higher education in this forum?

Let's just leave the parents out of things.

Make sure you tell him nice, Kerowololollllloll

Wil you really want to give me **** for calling someone out for a post you reported? You never know, that might be enough for me to give the forum an early Christmas present.

Thanks for having my back, wil.

Science outpaces public policy by a tragic margin, just as good ideas do. The Free Rider problem doesn't pertain to this at all, UNLESS Noodle is suggesting we crowdfund most or all road repairs, which is NOT what I'm in favor of at all. If you stood next to a table on a busy street selling a brilliant and fun idea or one pertaining to specific needs, you wouldn't raise any money. But the medium of exchange is different now, as are the culture of donating to causes people believe in. Example-- Twitch.tv.

Still, I wait for someone to explain why this wouldn't work, besides for the government being greedy or unwilling to transfer a power back to the general public. We need them to fix the roads, they don't have enough money to do it, AND they won't take our money either, or the money is not good money because FREE RIDERS YO, is what posters ITT effectively suggest. Cool, but that does not make a ton of sense.

Kerowo, when people laugh at you, remember it's exactly because of things like this. If you didn't act the way you did, you wouldn't catch ****. You know, the same reasoning you give me?

lol @ being butthurt about it. You are a funny dude.

No need to link it with lowering taxes. There's no harm in the government just trying it. Maybe the road users would contribute.

How about some form of hypothecation system for some part of taxed income? It would likely increase public involvement in local politics which would good. Not sure so much about non-local stuff.

Thinking about the frequency of road complaints around Detroit, disposable income, and those thermometer graphics that chart fund raising efforts, it seems like a no brainer that people would want to donate a few bucks here and there from their computer.

Everyone who has ever thought that teachers should make more money will have an opportunity to make that difference.

It's obviously going to raise some money, maybe even enough to pay the costs of the effort.

There's an extra bonus in that projects that get a reasonable chunk of cash this way are more likely to happen and get tax dollars spent on them. So detonators get leverage on their contribution in that tax revenue is moe likely to be spent on what they want.

Which suggest the obvious downside if it's non-local (or even too local) which is that poor areas can lose out on general tax spending.

What, specifically, makes you think that people would prefer the voluntary crowdfunding method so much that total funding for infrastructure would increase under your plan?

Is your hypothesis that people will be so happy that they no longer HAVE to give the government $100 in taxes that they will now CHOOSE to give it $150 or $200 for the roads? Is it the increased control over the spending that is supposed to make people more generous?

My hypothesis is that people are donating money towards less useful things, with no tax break, at an expanding rate. It would be a bad idea to say "30% income tax is now 20%, let's get this Kickstarter going!!", but a good idea to say "30% income tax will now be 29.9% if we raise enough money to fix the roads by a certain date."

Or just give coupons for donations. Or give no tax break, I don't care-- because I'm positive people would seed money towards non-trivial, important things. This is broad, but more efficient than what we currently have going if done right.