NationStates Jolt Archive

Rather straightforward, vote on how much of your money is wasted, per every Dollar (or Euro) you send into the government.

All of it

The cynic in me says 90% or more, the realist says 45-60%.

TOO MUCH

$0.99 of each dollar is wasted.

As the only tax I pay is VAT, not alot.

I love being a student :)

It seems most of it is wasted. But if they did solve the waste problem I don't want them to lower taxes. There are several areas that are in desperate need of a massive increase in funding. For example the police only has time to go after the high profile crimes while everyday crimes like robbing campers or stealing boat engines are left alone and risk free. But the money that is needed there is wasted on bureaucracy, inefficiency and less important areas like theater and the EU.

whoops... I don't pay taxes....

scurries away

Until I get a little ballot with my income taxes asking me what I want my taxes to go to, too much is being wasted XP

I wouldn't know.

I wonder who picked the ;None of my taxes are wasted' option.

Anyone?

As a non tax-paying citizen, I'll say a majority of my parents' taxes to the Federal and state governments are wasted. Local taxes are 100 percent being put to the obvious benefit to everyone in the community, and the signs of that are openly visible.

I wonder who picked the ;None of my taxes are wasted' option.

Anyone?

New Genoa and I. It's a public poll.

Charities can't even get up to 99% in efficiency (1 cent per dollar/euro wasted)

You really think the government could do better than them? Even if we do assume that governments were just as efficient, that'd be at least 30 cents per dollar/euro wasted.

Meanwhile, your choices are:
0%
0.9%
0.8%
0.7%
0.6%
0.5%
0.4%
0.3%
0.2%
0.1%

Directly, I would say about five to ten percent of my tax dollars are wasted. Once you factor things like deadweight losses and so on, that would balloon to about half of my tax dollars are wasted, most of which are opportunity costs and so on.

Probably a lot. I just wish I didn't have to pay any taxes. that would be awesome.

New Genoa and I. It's a public poll.

Ah, I see, never mind then.

Charities can't even get up to 99% in efficiency (1 cent per dollar/euro wasted)

You really think the government could do better than them? Even if we do assume that governments were just as efficient, that'd be at least 30 cents per dollar/euro wasted.

Meanwhile, your choices are:
0%
0.9%
0.8%
0.7%
0.6%
0.5%
0.4%
0.3%
0.2%
0.1%

I don't think charity organizations waste a full third of what you contribute, yet at the same time I don't understand what your complaining about. It's just an opinion.

As for the second part, I really don't understand what you mean; I agree, I just don't see how it applies.

http://www.budget.gov.au/2007-08/overview/image/38_appD_02.gif

Taking the following as unnecessary: welfare, industry and workforce, general government services and community services and culture, and judging that we could easily save 50% on defence and health, I come to a wastage of 74.93%.

http://www.budget.gov.au/2007-08/overview/image/38_appD_02.gif

Taking the following as unnecessary: welfare, industry and workforce, general government services and community services and culture, and judging that we could easily save 50% on defence and health, I come to a wastage of 74.93%.

A good chunk of education could be ditched too.

probably 30 cents.

FAR to much then what it should be.

A good chunk of education could be ditched too.
:p

It's not wasted if it's spent on me, is it? No, seriously, you're probably right. At the moment there's an extensive public school system alongside a system of private schools that get the same (or greater) levels of public funding. That just seems stupid: either privatise the whole system and do vouchers or have the two side by side - but don't give the private schools public funds.

Education is a state matter though, and the budget is a federal one. I haven't covered the question of state spending and I'm not actually sure whether this budget graph even contains it.

30-40%. The Conservatives proved to be allot less scandalous than they promised. But who is surprised?

depends what you mean by "wasted" really...

what about if say a police officers beats one out on duty and such :p

well, I voted for 70-80 cents, but maybe I should have voted for more in light of all the soc. sec. and welfare spending. While certainly some government jobs are done well and are necessary, from my personal experience most are just BS if you will.

For example, during my summer job I worked with some county employees, lets just say that the only reason they got off their ass is to go for lunch- on top of that they often squandered joint resources (I worked for a non-profit that cooperated with the county to upkeep parks) to do nothing with them, for example "needing" a dump truck so they could go out for lunch and basically lounge around. Of course these guys were getting paid 2-3x more than me for doing the same job or not doing it as the case was. Another example, the "security guards" at high schools in my city get paid upwards of $20 an hour. Where I went to school there were three of them (at least) who never once did anything but read the paper, watch TV and sometimes talk to kids they knew. Really, if something serious did go down, they didn't have any tools (tasers, etc.) to deal with it or probably even the training (I personally think I could have taken em all), and the cops would have had to been called anyway.

(is pissed he got all worked up again...)

Until they start telling us where our tax money are going, and I mean a detailed list, or they start letting me choose where I want the money to go, I'll have to say all of it is being wasted.

I don't pay taxes, so none. In fact, the tax office are paying my university fees.

I'd say 20%, tops. My definition of waste is money that could be spent on something beneficial to the taxpayer but is instead lost due to bureaucracy, cost overruns, or corruption. So-called "pork" projects don't necessarily fall in to the waste category because some of them are rather useful; I have no problem with a legislator winning funds to improve dams, bridges, roads, or schools or whatever in his district, since it's likely that will improve the country overall.

Truth be told, a lot of the things we consider waste are fairly important to our current economic structure; I can only wonder how many people would BAWWWWW when food prices rise due to the elimination of farm subsidies, among many other things. As much as I'd like government to cut its spending, that is much easier said than done.

Until they start telling us where our tax money are going, and I mean a detailed list, or they start letting me choose where I want the money to go, I'll have to say all of it is being wasted.

um...here (http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/fy08/browse.html)

I don't think charity organizations waste a full third of what you contribute, yet at the same time I don't understand what your complaining about. It's just an opinion.

As for the second part, I really don't understand what you mean; I agree, I just don't see how it applies.

By "waste" in charities I mean for example: I donate money to provide clothes for people in Zambia. Then, for every euro I donate, only about 60-70 cents of these actually end up paying for the clothes themselves. It doesn't mean the money is spent frivolously, just that it's not going towards what I would want it to.

I was complaining about the fact that you put in the options that allowed waste between 0 to 1% waste.

well, I voted for 70-80 cents, but maybe I should have voted for more in light of all the soc. sec. and welfare spending. While certainly some government jobs are done well and are necessary, from my personal experience most are just BS if you will.

And here the problem is exemplified. The poll options quite clearly stated 0.70-0.80 cents per dollar. That's Not 70 to 80 cents per dollar...


...unless you ask Verizon.

a lot... :|