The Onion Model for Government Spending

[sunspot]

I would like to propose an onion model for govenment priorities. Nobody likes paying taxes, but it is easier to swllow if one feels they are getting some direct benefit. As such, in the center of the onion are those things which benefit everyone. For example, clean water and air, roads, firefighting and police, national defense, etc., benefit almost everyone.

 

The next layer of the onion is for the future and the past. This layer would be for all children from conception to age 4, and for all seniors older than the average life expectancy. The children are the future and their personality is formed by age four. Optimizing the children is an investment in the future of our culture. Someday, they will be the leaders and innovators of our culture, such that giving them all the best start will lead to the best finish. The seniors older than the life expectancy, have already paid their dues and should be given respect and incentive to live as long as possible. Blending the two would be beneficial to both.

 

The next layer of the onion is for the prosperity of culture. This layer of the onion is for education and R&D. The cultural environment to produce even one more Bill Gates means hundreds of thousands of direct and support jobs and hundreds of billions of dollars of national wealth.

 

Layers beyond this are for special interests groups that benefit only a narrow range of the population. It is sort of the state of our current govenement. When the economy is good and revenues high we can afford many more layers of the onion. But when things are tough these outer layers of the onion can be thinned out out pealed off as needed.

[AzurePhoenix]

Could the model be garlic instead?

[JustStuit]

Nice idea. I think the senior benefits should start a little before life expectancy, within reason, because they will probably need help before then. With the help, more might make it to that age.

[Sisyphus]

Unfortunately, our "onion" is set up with the narrow special interests deep, deep inside, and I don't see that changing anytime soon.

[bascule]

And here I was expecting a link to http://theonion.com

[sunspot]

I realize that the ideal and the real are far apart and apathy will amount to no change. However, if one dreams big sometimes small positive changes can occur.

 

The garlic is not a good scenario because it implies roughly equal segments of the pie. That comes does to special interest groups defining the segments. The onion sets levels of priorities with that which benefits all in the middle. The majority will get screwed in the garlic scenario.

[AzurePhoenix]

Ahh, but to ignore the fact that my post was intended as a very mild joke, a garlic model could serve as a many layered pie, creating a number of distinct "slices" with their own layering, laying down a system in which they can be protected from one another. A wedge for NASA and other science stuff, which always gets shortchanged with the current system, you got your education, a wedge for healthcare, medicare etc, a wedge for the proactive support for government workers (for instance, in 15 years of police service my father is making less than one more dollar an hour than when he first started despite the ever-rising cost of living) and whatever you need for actual govenrment maitanance. Whatever is left is divided between savings and military. I know my model is very poorly thought out, but I'm tired, I only just started thinking about it, and this is barely serious for me. Still, I'm interested. Plus, garlic's great for fighting cholesterol.

 

----edit-----

 

looking back at everyhting, I now see how far off base I am, I was thinking of a completely different set of issues. I'm sorry. I'm going to go get my desperately needed sleep now.