Live data from Hacker News

Japan's Hometown Tax

kalzumeus.com

201–210 of 260 posts

Re: Japan's Hometown Tax

#201
post #196
post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On a side note, is there any system that exists where citizen can decide to a greater autonomy how there tax money is spent?

Libertarianism. I hear they are testing it out in Oregon. /s

Replace "Oregon" by "New Hampshire", and you can say the words with pride instead of sarcasm.

Re: Japan's Hometown Tax

#202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not saying we need to dissolve the federal government, I'm saying that if a lot of the stuff currently done by the executive branch (the alphabet soup of federal agencies) was done by the states there's really wouldn't be much of a difference from the individual liberty point of view.

I strongly disagree. In some states that would be the case. In others, there would be enormous regression.

So why not let those states use their freedom to sink their own ship. If they do really have it wrong and you do really have it right then that will show and they'll come around in the long term.

Re: Japan's Hometown Tax

#203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I strongly disagree. In some states that would be the case. In others, there would be enormous regression.

So why not let those states use their freedom to sink their own ship. If they do really have it wrong and you do really have it right then that will show and they'll come around in the long term.

Because human rights are important and oppression is bad. States aren’t monolithic entities. This isn’t a case where people suffer the consequences of their own choices. It’s a case where some people suffer the consequences of other people’s choices. You’re proposing to allow millions to suffer indefinitely, hoping that those who rule them will eventually change their mind.

This is been tried already, and it didn’t work. What changed things was force, first military, then legal.

Re: Japan's Hometown Tax

#204
Poland has something similar on regional (not city) level, it's called Janosikowe (from Janosik - a Polish Robin Hood), and it's much less flavorful than the Japanese thing, it's just a percentage of local taxes paid by the richest regions to the poorest regions.

Re: Japan's Hometown Tax

#205
post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought that the current consensus was that races don't really exist. "Modern" racism can be more subtle than that, more about xenophobia or just classism.

Depends whether you’re talking about the consensus among critical race theorists or population geneticists. The latter have no problem with dividing different people into groups based on ancestry based on what continent their ancestor came from though the word race is passé. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancestry-informative_marker

Well, my comment was an answer to an answer to an answer. Someone complained that previous comment generalized about groups of persons from a certain region and then someone else objected that people from a certain region does not make a race. So I was trying to point that racism is a perfect term to define discrimination based on (perceived or constructed or real) groups you would belong to, including, like in this case, in where you come from.

Re: Japan's Hometown Tax

#206
post #195

I LOVE this idea! Here in the US, it could really help out rural communities. The best part is that it is 'free' to everyone; you've already paid the taxes. Small communities could, and do, organize festivals based on local culture: Trout fishing in the summer, Ice festivals in the winter, Duck races in the spring, etc. They get people interested in some aspect of the community, be it a festival, music, the climate,…

Did you read the entire article? It's not really 'free to everyone', it's not like it's magic money. It's more like a transfer of tax revenue from Tokyo to rural communities, with a bit of a kickback to the tax payers. And while your vision sounds nice, the end of the article made it sound more like it's become a race to the bottom with most rural towns offering the maximum amount allowed in gift vouchers which peopl…

Huge problem in the US is we allowed important parts of the country to deteriorate in various ways.

Re: Japan's Hometown Tax

#207
post #195

I LOVE this idea! Here in the US, it could really help out rural communities. The best part is that it is 'free' to everyone; you've already paid the taxes. Small communities could, and do, organize festivals based on local culture: Trout fishing in the summer, Ice festivals in the winter, Duck races in the spring, etc. They get people interested in some aspect of the community, be it a festival, music, the climate,…

Did you read the entire article? It's not really 'free to everyone', it's not like it's magic money. It's more like a transfer of tax revenue from Tokyo to rural communities, with a bit of a kickback to the tax payers. And while your vision sounds nice, the end of the article made it sound more like it's become a race to the bottom with most rural towns offering the maximum amount allowed in gift vouchers which peopl…

I use the system and while yes you can do what you describe it is usually not really worth it. There is a limit on it that is not that high and it is more fun to just grab different fun things. I ended up using it for lots of high grade meat, sake

Re: Japan's Hometown Tax

#208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you’re underestimating just how useful those weak protections still are. The increase in freedoms over the past ~50 years has been gigantic, and a huge part of that came from federal intervention. The state I live in would almost certainly still have segregation and still outlaw my marriage, for example. Consider all the crazy shit that certain states have started doing since the Supreme Court struck down the…

I'm not saying we need to dissolve the federal government, I'm saying that if a lot of the stuff currently done by the executive branch (the alphabet soup of federal agencies) was done by the states there's really wouldn't be much of a difference from the individual liberty point of view.

I agree in a way. Changing laws doesn't make people free. Changing culture does. Sometimes (often?) changing laws has an impact on culture for sure, but how much? It is indirect.

Re: Japan's Hometown Tax

#209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So why not let those states use their freedom to sink their own ship. If they do really have it wrong and you do really have it right then that will show and they'll come around in the long term.

Because human rights are important and oppression is bad. States aren’t monolithic entities. This isn’t a case where people suffer the consequences of their own choices. It’s a case where some people suffer the consequences of other people’s choices. You’re proposing to allow millions to suffer indefinitely, hoping that those who rule them will eventually change their mind. This is been tried already, and it didn’t w…

I mean, newsflash that we're still stomping on rights in a lot of places in the US.

There's a huge culture problem in the US.

Re: Japan's Hometown Tax

#210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For US income taxes the only amount of your taxes that you can direct is $3 for the presidential election fund. Why not expand this and let you pick from a dozen or so categories?

So people educated with public funds but without kids will allocate 0$ to education, then complain that youths these days just hang in the street doing no good, and allocate more of their tax towards policing?

I thought that public schools and policing were funded in the US by local and state taxes not by the Federal government (which is what the Presidential election fund refers to).
Post reply on HN