It’s been the same since the days of Robin Hood. The local sheriff takes his tax money in return for a service, be that a new castle, or protection from a band of merry men. Nowadays merry men aren’t much of a problem, but the process remains the same. Instead of paying a sheriff, we now pay a legitimate local government, who try their best to spend the money wisely. This is accepted, but is it the best way to build and maintain communities?
Stand and deliver?
Every month I take a look at my paycheck and see a good third has been siphoned off as tax. I’d like to say this makes me feel like a good member of society, but to be honest it doesn’t. Which leads me to ask, which one of the following two statements best reflects how you feel?
a) gladly pay my taxes as I know it goes towards improving my local community.
b) begrudgingly pay my taxes, I’d rather spend it on other things.
I’m guessing that most of you are somewhat closer to b) than a).
How can we shift the more people over to the “gladly paying taxes” statement?
Our proposal is to give every citizen more control and visibility over where their tax money is spent, thus giving them a greater feeling for their contribution to society.
“You can see where your tax money goes.”
A friend of mine, living in Munich, recently commented that, although taxes are very high, “you can see where your tax money goes”. It’s true, Munich has a great infrastructure, the streets are kept clean and tidy, it’s a great place to live. But at what cost? Munich spends a whopping €35,000,000 per year on sweeping streets. I wonder how many Müncheners know this figure? If we gave the citizens of Munich greater control over how the budget was spent, would they be more likely to clean up after themselves? What would they spend the saved money on instead?
In the United Kingdom, care for the elderly is set to consume 40% of the local council budget. Now, I’m not advocating that we stop caring for vulnerable adults, quite the opposite, but are we now so busy with our own lives that we no longer feel the need to volunteer? Looking at the figures it’s pretty clear that looking after one another has become outsourced.
At what cost? Spending on education has nearly halved, this at a time where investment in the future is more desperately needed than ever before. In fact the UK now spends more money on collecting waste than on education.
What can we do about this?
Firstly we must be more transparent. Each citizen should receive information about how their tax money is spent. Most people's interest in tax stops at trying to reduce their burden as much as possible. We should help change this mindset by actively pushing the budget information to them.
Secondly we need to improve community engagement. But rather than talking about how much we spend on waste collection, let's turn the question around. What opportunities do you see within your local community? How much of your local tax money would you like to invest in new projects? This will ultimately lead us to question of where can we save in order to pursue these new projects.
Benefits
Ultimately the greatest benefit would be a more engaged community working for itself rather than relying on someone else to solve their problems. If citizens are more involved in the allocation of the budget then they are ultimately more accountable for the outcomes.
Some tangible benefits could be:
- Local people taking care of the elderly
- Less wastage caused by excessive consumerism
- More money spent on education
- More ideas on how to improve the local community
How can Hybocracy help?
Hybocracy allows each citizen to identify new opportunities within their communities, and to crowdfund those that they see as worthwhile. Hybocracy proposes creating a new cryptocurrency “Citizen Coins” that could be used for this purpose.
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