politics

my hottest take is that society can run on voluntary taxes if we align incentives properly and make the process transparent

It's like nobody in this thread has heard of the massive public goods ecosystem and all the experimentation going on around this idea of "voluntary taxes".

But yes, very promising hypothesis that if we align incentives with transparent systems we can actually create an environment where people enjoy funding things for improving their existence without monetary rewards for doing so.

Pointing out biz mistakes & solving them, Positioning nerd making products Unignorable, also bringing 📬 /buildbetter, 🎙️ /web3magic and /artistspotlight

Yeah I agree with this. 

I think the voluntary part is a loaded term. 

My view of voluntary is having the ability to choose how and what to spend your taxes on. 

If you don't believe in a particular action you shouldn't be forced to fund it. But this is only possible if you have the option of choosing to fund an alternative solution to the problem.

You can't just sit back and say "I'm not supporting anything".

Step one: identify problem space
Step two: source potential solutions
Step three: enable ppl to put skin in the game by supporting the solution they believe in the most

Right now the current "taxes" system does none of these things, and that's what "voluntary" taxes would look like to me. 

Maybe a better term is "participatory taxes".

taxes don't need to be voluntary - they just need to be transparent and visibly used to improve something people care about ... and also they should be paid differently by people in different stages of their economic lives and societal hierarchy 

But it's a big topic with many implications, which boils down to facts that Europe and the US both have politicians with zero vision and zero courage to fight for what's best long term for the nations - "stuff my pockets" or "keep my job" is the mantra - so we need to wait for yet another generation

Farcaster-native research: https://paragraph.xyz/@matthewb | prev. Juicebox, Nouns, RAW DAO | casting about coffee, hi-fi, and other rabbit holes

Who's "us" lol. I was just ragging on all the responses in that thread as if it was some dead-on-arrival idea that's already been settled.

It's a complex nut to crack, for sure. I have a lot of opinions about why current systems aren't working! 

But I don't think it's actually that hot of a take considering there's an entire ecosystem founded on the exact principle that ppl will voluntarily pay taxes if they trust how they are being used.

I wonder how many ppl even actually grok that public goods=taxes?

most of us are well aware, we just consider those experiments largely failures thus far

pics or it didn't happen

oh I'm aware of the experiments going on in this space, I'm just generally skeptical of most of them because the pooling and deployment of funds tends to be centralized when you boil it down 

it's what drove me to build my /poidh crowdfunding "open bounty" mechanism, would love to hear your thoughts on it!

incentivizing things @ poidh.xyz - come chill /poidh + follow @poidhbot

Yeah I love what you're doing!

It's experiments all the way down! 

I think there will be hundreds of innovations like yours that help move this hypothesis forward. 

I was just scoffing at all the naysayers replyguying your post 😂 people are so stuck in the politics rut that they can't even see daylight anymore. 

I also agree that most of the public goods experiments right now are not hitting the mark. But they are all experimenting with the same hypothesis you are! 

I think most ppl just don't really get it yet that public goods = taxes. They're solving for the same problem. 

We solve public goods and we don't need mandatory taxes anymore.

This is hands down the biggest application of Blockchain technology. Largest TAM possible. Nothing could be more important! 

So keep up the good work!

oh I'm aware of the experiments going on in this space, I'm just generally skeptical of most of them because the pooling and deployment of funds tends to be centralized when you boil it down 

it's what drove me to build my /poidh crowdfunding "open bounty" mechanism, would love to hear your thoughts on it!

https://paragraph.com/@poidh/poidh-open-multiplayer-bounties-explained