[innguest]

> Income tax, when used smartly, can be one of the greatest things a nation has at its disposal.

A nation is just its people. People are already in possession of this money before the income tax takes it from them. I agree that this money can be one of the greatest things that people have at their disposal, which is why I'm arguing we should not let government handle it.

Why are you against peacefully convincing people, making your case, asking for money, and then using that money for what you want? Don't we see time again with kickstarter that this works? Why do you cling to old economic ideas of redistribution of wealth to fund space programs which are supposed to be forward-thinking and future-looking? You don't think the future is decentralized, including the funding of big projects? Wow.

[tim333]

>People are already in possession of this money...I'm arguing we should not let government handle it.

a) That's what elections for. Start a party to abolish taxes and see if any people vote for you

b) HN isn't really the place for political ranting - there are other forums

[mtbcoder]

Crowd-funded projects fail all the time. What do you do when your local police or fire department fail to meet their crowd-funding goals? How do you handle those that donate very little or nothing at all but consume large amounts, if not most, of the services/resources? How would an individual possibly have the time to adequately research and figure out what to crowd-fund? How would you stop outside interest groups from manipulating what gets crowd-funded? The list goes on.

[scentoni]

This actually happens in some unfortunate places: "Firefighters in rural Tennessee let a home burn to the ground last week because the homeowner hadn't paid a $75 fee." http://www.nbcnews.com/id/39516346/ns/us_news-life/t/no-pay-...

[bennyg]

> You don't think the future is decentralized, including the funding of big projects? Wow.

Nowhere did I say that. I think there is room for both. You seem to think there isn't.