Government Jobs

This is something I've thought about for a while.  What if there were places in every major city in America where anyone over the age of 18 could work for minimum wage?  You don't need to be hired, you could be homeless, you could be unemployed or you could stop by on one of your days off to make a quick buck.  I've had this on my mind for a long time and it seems like an awesome way to help with the unemployment problem.  I think it would also force private businesses to pay their employees more. 


The only thing is I'm not sure what the job would be.  It would need to be something quantifiable so that you wouldn't have to worry about people coming in and sitting on their ass doing nothing and getting paid for it.  Perhaps it could be something as simple as picking apples, once you have 100 apples in your bucket you get paid.  It would also have to be something simple so that it wouldn't discriminate against the uneducated.  Again, some sort of farming would be a good choice. 

I'm sure this could bring up all sorts of problems, but it's not my job to think about them.  That's your job, tell me why I'm a fucking moron!   Oh, and if you don't feel like insulting me maybe you can ponder what sort of job would be best for this new project.

Why Can't We Choose Where Our Tax Money Goes?

This is something I've thought about for a while.   Wouldn't it be nice if there was a small checklist on your W-2 form where you got to choose where your tax money goes?  I know that it probably wouldn't be smart to give people full control over this, because certain programs would inevitably become more popular, and others would be neglected.  But even if we had control over only 10% of where our tax money goes I think it would definitely boost the countries morale.  Hey, maybe it could even stop a war or two if no one chose to have their money pay for tanks and guns.  I think this would be awesome.  Somebody please tell me why I'm an idiot.  I'll feel especially stupid if this is already an option we have.  I tend to do my taxes as fast as possible, like ripping off a band-aid. 

Intro to the Blog

I've decided to start this blog as a place for me to throw out my naive ideas about how communities can work in a better way.  I often find myself in a conversation with friends where we will discuss ideas for new laws or government projects.  Inevitably we end up believing that none of them could work for some unforeseen reasons far above our heads.  We say things like "I'm sure it wouldn't make sense economically," or "tons of people have probably already thought of this and there's a good reason it hasn't happened."  But the one thing we've never done is search for the reasons why. 

So here I am, tell me why these ideas are impossible.  At the worst this will be a fun critical thinking exercise, and in my most optimistic fantasies I've thought maybe, just maybe we will find out that some of these proposals might actually work.