Via Grist:
What if U.S. taxpayers were allowed, for some small portion of their taxes — say, 10 percent — to specify on their tax returns where they’d like to direct the money? Lamberton ran some experiments to find out.
One result is that those allowed to specify some tax expenditures felt much less irritation and angst, and much more of a sense of satisfaction and benefit, toward paying taxes. That in itself would be a sea change in U.S. consciousness.
But what interested me even more is finding out what people would spend on if allowed to choose. You think it’s foreign wars and fossil-fuel subsidies? No. Lamberton sums it up as “more butter, fewer guns.” Specifically:
Respondents across the board shifted spending toward education, training, and social services — all areas that are major job-creation engines and paths to sustainable improvements in standards of living. Democratic respondents allocated 25 percent of their allocable tax dollars to education, training, and social services, while Republicans allocated about 21 percent.
Other categories also saw substantial gains. Most notably, energy, the environment, and science increased from approximately 4 percent to 16 percent of spending. Even Republican respondents showed substantial upward movement in this category, allocating about 14 percent to energy and scientific issues. Bipartisan consensus also prevailed on housing and community development funding, which more than doubled for both parties, from 5 percent to about 11 percent. Interestingly, dollars for anti-poverty measures did not change substantially, holding at approximately 13 percent of the budget overall, but higher among Democrats, who allocated 16 percent to such efforts, compared to 10 percent among Republicans.