Posted on 09/23/2005 2:45:56 PM PDT by tricky_k_1972
hrmnnnnnnnnnnn...
The winner could wait for his flight into space, or sell the ticket to the highest bidder, tax-free.
The excitement of the lottery winnings alone would push the entrants to make more investments. Maybe it could be in five dollar increments.
That's a great addition to the program, my only concern is that it gets the federal government into the gambling arena, which I feel is dangerous territory if other groups try to apply it to all their pet projects, of course that could also be said of my original idea.
Ok, I've got the solution. If this is designed as an extra voluntary tax, then it avoids all the problems of other groups attempting to glom onto the idea and turn the entire federal budget into a reactionary self-serving crap heap.
If you wish to spend $5.00 more in taxes for a chance at a future space flight or the ability to sell that opportunity after winning it on the open market, then you can.
As long as each had its own separate write-off, who cares?
This is all voluntary taxation money, so it shouldn't affect anyone else.
How about a tax write-off lottery to buy Baja from Mexico? Nice estate as the prize!
Acronymically speaking, GMTA.
I love this.
If the enviro weenies want extra money, fine, name a forest after someone.
If the welfare people want extra money, fine, offer up a free house.
Nobody ever gets an increase in their line item unless they offer a reason and a benefit, and it's strictly voluntary.
Somebody please tell me what’s wrong with this cause it sounds to good to be true.
I'm not sure what you mean by your first statement quoted above, but I would like to suggest a multiplier effect, that good ideas or good reasons get a dividend from a tax deduction to assist in the project. That is, if you can state a really convincing reason why your idea is of benefit to the world, you can add to your voluntary contribution by an amount deducted from your tax burden.
What's wrong with it is that it doesn't really reduce the tax burden, but by having voluntary donations flowing into worthwhile projects, the tax burden could be reduced gradually as those projects pay off.
I remember reading a (obviously) Science Fiction story in which every dollar of tax burden had to be allocated by the taxpayer to his choice of benefit programs. The tax form was horrendously long, but at least you had the choice of supporting the programs that appealed to you, and rejecting (defunding) those that did not!
If you wish to spend $5.00 more in taxes for a chance at a future space flight or the ability to sell that opportunity after winning it on the open market, then you can.
Can we find a way to apply this to defense spending; I mean we can't exactly give someone an M1 Tank? Maybe we could offer the naming of the Tank, Destroyer or Aircraft.
I love this.
If the enviro weenies want extra money, fine, name a forest after someone.
If the welfare people want extra money, fine, offer up a free house.
Nobody ever gets an increase in their line item unless they offer a reason and a benefit, and it's strictly voluntary.
Somebody please tell me what’s wrong with this, because it sounds to good to be true.
In the era when AOL can absorb Time-Warner for $166 billion we can still talk about $5 chits. It's a miracle.
In other words current taxes stay static. Your budget line item only gets an increase by voluntary taxation.
Yes, but were talking about "$5 chits" across the entire US, and it's all voluntary.
The entire world was stunned when the whole structure lit up the ocean like a second sun as the nuclear rockets blew a trail of fire nearly two miles long from hundreds of rocket exhausts, and the “casino” lifted off and went directly into orbit!”It is a quote from a planned chapter of a future book, which is basically a love affair with the idea of manned exploration and exploitation of space.
I heard some 'poor guy' complaining that he couldn't get out of Houston because he couldn't cash his GovCheck. That's who would buy the $5 tickets. There is no way anything can possibly beat the corporations. The Big 100, or Big 500, might be Big enough to do outer space development. What is the corporate status of Rutan? I'll tell you, once you go corporate, the individual is out of the loop. Be on the Board of Directors, or be an employee, the Corporation will kick the individual out even if the move would be considered suicidal to business. See, corporations are inherently immortal. Sony will survive even without its guiding genius and no iPod. GM will survive even without its soul or hybrid drivetrain. Corporations will look at outer space as soon as they can get some property rights; the $5 guy doesn't know anything about property rights or corporations.
People would be jumping on it from the lottery aspect alone!
I'd have multiple winners, with perhaps every ten millionth $5 ticket being chosen at random. That's fifty million for a ride into space for someone, and who cares about who it might be? Ten million to one odds against winning, but a tax-free million if you do! Not a bad lottery!
The money will disappear into a black hole. Even Carnegie would sell short on that deal. What is the true power form of investment vehicle? The best forms of debentures? Pennies saved Old Ironsides, but only up to a point, now it's another Gov't Institution. Like the Post Office.
You’re right, and that’s precisely the problem with any gambling, whether it is the state or federal government running the program.
I am wrong, there is no way to run a program like this without it leading to disaster.
He has done a fine job of pulling together the true history of the rise of the modern corporation. Why would a writer of computer books even care enough about this to do some research and then write about it in a way that presents this dry stuff in a fascinating way? Can't say, but it fills in a big gap. Considering that America [with Japan] has emerged as far and away the power on earth, and the modern corporation is the structure behind all of that, why don't we take a good look at this modern corporation idea, where it came from, how it was implemented, who did it.
Quite the possibility. However, if a few lucky working stiffs win tickets to space, and sell them to rich individuals, those individuals will have a compelling interest in monitoring their investment. My devious plan has many aspects.
I understand your post about the ascendancy of corporations, but I'm not clear about why this would be an impediment to progress in this venture. Corporations are the active agents of investors (of which I am one), and would be powerful allies in furthering the development of space assets.
Maybe at some level of debenture. At the common stock level they are definitely forever not agents for the investors. Active and agent are the same word at root, somewhat redundous. The history of the rise of the American modern corporation is fascinating, which I never thought could be possible when I was studying physics. But, in trying to find a way to mine asteroids I have been led to study many things that I formerly viewed as attractive as [fill in your favorite noxious substance here]. The place of corporations in America and in the world seems to be vital to the present ascendancy of the West, and alone seems to make space exploration possible. How to guide it to the conquest of outer space is the problem.
How to guide a money-grubbing, socially insensitive, mindlessly immoral entity in a particular direction ... Don't tell me, now. Let me think about it ... I know this one ...
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