Efficiency. Actually let me back up, to me a property tax makes more sense for police and fire services. But for the rest, it's more efficient to just give money directly to families than to fund a government agency to do it for you. And issuing tax refunds wouldn't be necessary in a recession - after all, it's not really an economic stimulus, but removing the economic drain that taxes are in the first place.
Are you sure the root of economic problems like 2008 was taxation?
EU colleges are compelling, because their students graduate without a burden of debt to be repaid over a decade or more. It's unlikely any private system could fund all students in a country for no returns (other than the benefits of an educated population).
> But for the rest, it's more efficient to just give money directly to families than to fund a government agency to do it for you.
Is that so? I'm sure that in many areas, this would immediately exclude many people of wrong colour/country of origin/sexual orientation. One thing that a normal democratic system is the protection of minorities.
Well, it could help. The problem with a democracy is that if the majority is bigoted, then the money is taken from a less-bigoted minority and applied unequally. And in any kind of government, if an elected or appointed official is bigoted, then policies set can get biased too.
It's certainly a possible improvement, but it's not an absolute one.
I feel a growing sense that it's not so much a property of a 'normal democratic system' that minorities are protected, but rather that other processes enshrined these values (including democracy) in institutions.
And while democracy does quite likely facilitate the institutionalization of these processes, it's 'causal' role in this is perhaps weaker than we think.
This is the reason why I often worry about the growing xenophobia and populism in political activity. It seems much more the case that politicians sway popular opinion than the other way around, creating tempest in teapots, some of which become 'societal issues' that really aren't.
It's also a reason why I've become curious (but still quite skeptical, I must admit) about these 'alternative' democratic approaches that don't assume voting (and by extension majority rule) to be the basis of democracy.
That said, I might be saying colossally silly things here. I'm in an armchair.
Please correct me, or point me to interesting resources, as I am very invested in this topic.
