Worked with a fella years ago who once got a job promotion to office manager…..to an office with two dozen women and their typewriters. Ho-lee-shit the stories he could tell. Finally he gave up and got permission from his boss to hire an assistant manager. Pure genius move on his part, the guy hired the biggest butch lesbian he could find. Let her handle all the petty bickering. After a couple of weeks there was no more petty bickering. Office never ran so smooth. I guess it just goes to show that things are easier when you have the right tool for the job.
Along with a religious test for holding elected office, you’ve nailed another of the major points of discussion during the ratification times. In some cases the “discussion” was pretty vigorous, as correspondence of the time shows.
Not necessarily property owners, but your voting privilige should depend on whether or not your tax return shows a net payment instead of a huge refund that you didn’t pay first to get back. A tax ‘refund’ should be because you paid too much in and let the gov’t use your money interest free, not because you get a bunch of ‘credits’ and never paid a cent into the pot. I’m tired of not only paying my own taxes, but everyone else’s too…just got the bill for my ‘quarterly installment’ $1500…on top of what I already paid.
In an era where there 300+million citizens, i would prefer the model Heinlein roposed in “Starship Troopers”.
Volunteer for federal service, (it can include anything and youn can’t be refused unless mentally incompetent ), completer your tour honorably, then you can vote.
This.
Money, or the lack of it, doesn’t show that a person is willing to make decisions that may harm them personally if that choice is what is in the best interest of the nation.
Nation, not the government.
August 29, 2026 at 6:34 pm
Henry
Well, that’s not what we get now. People enter federal service so they can make decisions with other people’s money, and then be IMMUNIZED against the personal consequences of their bad decisions.
IIRC Uncle Sam got along fairly well prior to the “Income Tax”, now can’t get along even with it. What next? Elon has some ideas… your favorite ‘AI’ can explain.
I, for one, don’t have a “favorite” AI because none of them so far “ground truth” what they “know”.
Garbage In Garbage Out is still the standard for Information Technology.
Everyone gets a tax account into which their taxes are paid.
At the end of the year everyone receives a copy of the US Government budget, where in you can drill down to the specific line items in the budget.
Then the person has to spend all of the money in their tax account by choosing which items to fund.
If items do not receive funding, they apparently were not important enough to the people and do not need funding at all.
The problem with this is WHEN was the last time Congress produced a budget?
Zar Belk!
August 29, 2026 at 6:45 pm
Henry
We actually have a system like that in Arizona. There are five classes of “public charities” for which you can donate and take tax CREDITS (not deductions, dollar for dollar writeoffs of your final state tax liability): public schools, private tuition orgs, foster care orgs, military relief orgs, and social service groups (like senior centers, food banks, etc.) up to a certain amount in each category. A married couple can sink a state tax bill of up to $1,000 into totally targeted giving. My money does double duty in (among other orgs) helping fund the high-power rifle team at our public HS (rumored to be the last one left in the USA). https://krtaxes.com/news/arizona-charitable-tax-credit-list-2026-every-qualifying-charity
17 Comments
Aw, hell. Never mind mere nagging. The missus works with 95% women, and wars are a weekly occurrence. Oh the stories…
Worked with a fella years ago who once got a job promotion to office manager…..to an office with two dozen women and their typewriters. Ho-lee-shit the stories he could tell. Finally he gave up and got permission from his boss to hire an assistant manager. Pure genius move on his part, the guy hired the biggest butch lesbian he could find. Let her handle all the petty bickering. After a couple of weeks there was no more petty bickering. Office never ran so smooth. I guess it just goes to show that things are easier when you have the right tool for the job.
It’s not about “The wars men start.”
It’s about “Which men are likely to start wars?”
Eliminate THEM – problem solved.
Space; 1999 (Gerry Anderson, 1975-77). “The Exiles”, episode S02 E03.
Maya (Catherine Schell) asks Dr. Russell (Barbara Bain),
“So, when did you Earth women decide to start liking men again?”
Answer?
“It took a while. We had to give up a lot of pretensions and wrong assumptions. We’re not good at that.”
Scriptwriters Terry Nation and Tony Barwick stated that that particular exchange came from Sylvia Anderson.
clear ether
eon
F-A-B!
Zar Belk!
Voting should be restricted to property and business owners, those who pay taxes into the system.
Voting should be withheld from those who take from the system; students, welfare, incarcerated, non-citizens….
Along with a religious test for holding elected office, you’ve nailed another of the major points of discussion during the ratification times. In some cases the “discussion” was pretty vigorous, as correspondence of the time shows.
Not necessarily property owners, but your voting privilige should depend on whether or not your tax return shows a net payment instead of a huge refund that you didn’t pay first to get back. A tax ‘refund’ should be because you paid too much in and let the gov’t use your money interest free, not because you get a bunch of ‘credits’ and never paid a cent into the pot. I’m tired of not only paying my own taxes, but everyone else’s too…just got the bill for my ‘quarterly installment’ $1500…on top of what I already paid.
In an era where there 300+million citizens, i would prefer the model Heinlein roposed in “Starship Troopers”.
Volunteer for federal service, (it can include anything and youn can’t be refused unless mentally incompetent ), completer your tour honorably, then you can vote.
This.
Money, or the lack of it, doesn’t show that a person is willing to make decisions that may harm them personally if that choice is what is in the best interest of the nation.
Nation, not the government.
Well, that’s not what we get now. People enter federal service so they can make decisions with other people’s money, and then be IMMUNIZED against the personal consequences of their bad decisions.
The Female of the Species
Rudyard Kipling
IIRC Uncle Sam got along fairly well prior to the “Income Tax”, now can’t get along even with it. What next? Elon has some ideas… your favorite ‘AI’ can explain.
I, for one, don’t have a “favorite” AI because none of them so far “ground truth” what they “know”.
Garbage In Garbage Out is still the standard for Information Technology.
I’ve a simple one, cribbed from Heinlein.
Everyone gets a tax account into which their taxes are paid.
At the end of the year everyone receives a copy of the US Government budget, where in you can drill down to the specific line items in the budget.
Then the person has to spend all of the money in their tax account by choosing which items to fund.
If items do not receive funding, they apparently were not important enough to the people and do not need funding at all.
The problem with this is WHEN was the last time Congress produced a budget?
Zar Belk!
We actually have a system like that in Arizona. There are five classes of “public charities” for which you can donate and take tax CREDITS (not deductions, dollar for dollar writeoffs of your final state tax liability): public schools, private tuition orgs, foster care orgs, military relief orgs, and social service groups (like senior centers, food banks, etc.) up to a certain amount in each category. A married couple can sink a state tax bill of up to $1,000 into totally targeted giving. My money does double duty in (among other orgs) helping fund the high-power rifle team at our public HS (rumored to be the last one left in the USA).
https://krtaxes.com/news/arizona-charitable-tax-credit-list-2026-every-qualifying-charity