I didn't downvote , but I presume those were around your misunderstanding of FOSS and OSS.
>> Edit: I guess HN prefers to stay stuck in quagmire rather than dream of improvements. Sad state of affairs.
Dreaming in itself doesn't lead to improvement. There's nothing wrong with dreaming per se, but it won't solve the problem raised by the parent article.
There are other course lots of ways to "improve" the situation. Microsoft has a model that generates mountains of documentation, and they find a way to pay for it. That model though (commercial software generating sales revenue) is not compatible with OSS licenses. I'm guessing we're looking for an "improvement" here that doesn't involve changing away from OSS licenses.
Even if that wasn't a deal-breaker though, fixing problems with new taxes is seldom a viable solution in the real world.
Taxes are seldom so specific - occasionally things collected here are used over there but mostly it's a giant pot. So your suggestion would be better described as "create a govt fund, seed it with billions a year and issue grants from that."
Certainly the money would have to come from somewhere, which means either raising some general tax, of cutting spending elsewhere. In case you haven't noticed there is little appetite in politics to increase spending. One party regularly lowers taxes and increases the deficit. The other wants to expand social services and increase the deficit. All sides see an increasing deficit as bad. (Go square that circle)
Interestingly European Govts -are- spending on OSS, and issue grants. But there's little appetite got this in the US.
So, by all means dream. By all means throw out ideas. But accept that most ideas are bad. This one is bad I multiple directions. That's no big deal, it'll help inform your next idea, which may be good.