szhmidty:

argumate:

the-grey-tribe:

One of the weirdest policy proposals is where you put an expiration date on cash, to encourage spending.

ooh I’ve played with that one, it also fits well with some basic income proposals

I think the weirdest I’ve seen is this combined with a system where your funding for next year depends on how much you spend this year. It pretty much discourages saving money entirely, since any money left at the end of the year gets taken away AND you get less money next year.

“If we don’t spend a billion dollars one year, then we don’t get a billion dollars the next year, and if we don’t get a billion dollars the next year, then we have to go and spend more money on lobbyists to get the laws changed so that we get our billion dollars the year after that. And nobody wants that because then we might have to compete with other lobbyists. We could get into a bidding war, that’s how democracy works. On the other hand, the Nutcracker Room here is a sure thing. I make fun of it, but in the long run, it’s probably faster and cheaper just to build a giant nutcracker, write it off, and be done with it.”