Confession: I like paying taxes

A well functioning government is a good thing, actually, and such a thing needs money to run. So, I pay my taxes.

I know it'd be aggressively democratic for me to be able to say how I want my taxes allotted, and there are reasons we don't do that. But gosh... Does nearly half the discretionary spending have to be for killing people?

A state representative in the Utah legislature recently proposed a bill to prevent undocumented immigrants from accessing state-funded welfare, including food banks and homeless shelters. I don't think it will pass, but some of the arguments in favor of the bill were about how the government shouldn't act like a charity.

I... uhh... I disagree? I would love it if more of my tax dollars went towards helping people. Isn't "promote the general welfare" part of the US constitution? (Granted, in Utah, the highest portion of the state budget is public education, which I'm all for.)

A few ideas from this armchair politician (some of which require changing ones perspective from seeing these people as enemies or "less-than" to seeing them as neighbors):

End homelessness by funding more housing projects (doesn't even have to be low-income housing, because any new housing will increase supply and decrease housing costs) and giving homes and support to homeless people.

End food scarcity by ensuring everyone can get the food that they need.

End energy scarcity by funding renewable energy and energy storage projects.

Improve our research and development by funding all kinds of research, even if it seems absolutely bonkers. We've got to recognize that a lot of powerful technological breakthroughs happen because scientists were just playing around.

Create the world we want to live in and foster goodwill by being generous to other countries with food, medicine, vaccines, and economic support. We can cultivate good relationships that turn into future trade and culture partners.

Improve the criminal to upstanding citizen pipeline by providing convicts with social workers and resources to help them get back on their feed.

Improve the immigrant to citizenship pipeline by providing immigrants with social workers and attorneys to help them navigate the immigration process.

I don't think I said that any of this is strictly anti-corporation, but it should be clear that some corporations would benefit from this kind of stuff and some would not be too happy with it. To them I say: I think the kind of business you're in is bad business, and you should get out of it and into good business (I'm looking at you, coal).

But a lot of this is pro-human, and the best pro-human actions aren't scalable. This will require a lot of people connecting with their clients and constituents one-on-one. It can't be automated; this is by design.

Anyway, this list isn't exhaustive, nor are these ideas without real flaws and real tradeoffs. I get that. But hey, a guy can dream, right?