An Elective Tax for Controversial Issues?

Posted on August 10, 2010 by Bay Phillips

If you’ve read or watched any news about the upcoming elections in 2010, and 2012, you’ll have noticed that some of the “hot” button issues are starting to pop up. Some of these issues include the state funding of abortions, gay marriage, or stem cell research. This is by no means a complete list; however, they’re recurring themes of political seasons that don’t ever seem to have any end in sight.

That got me thinking about why that may be. Clearly, the USA has a huge moral and ideological divide on what’s acceptable in our modern day society. This is due to our diverse backgrounds of ethnicity, faith and political belief. How in the world are we ever going to agree on an outcome that works out for both party’s best interests?

That got me thinking about an idea that I’m not familiar with: an Elective Tax. It would be, in essence, a tax that you either agree or not agree to pay in order to receive any of the benefits or services that it funds. Would that even be considered a tax?

If so, I’d like to use the issue of state-funded abortions to try to explain my point:

Let’s say I’m your average, middle class American who doesn’t object to the usage of abortions (this is an example, it may or may not be my stance on the issue). Because I believe it’s the right of a woman to choose, I am willing to pay an extra tax that would fund state-funded abortions. That means that if I ever need to use the services, I would be “covered” and able to use the resources at a health center that I’ve paid for.

With the increased usage of technology within our government, couldn’t it be possible to create a system that would allow a center to check if you’re eligible to have the operation? You could even keep track of how many times a person has had the operation in order to combat the issue of being using abortions several times. Details like that could be ironed out, but from a technological perspective, it’s possible.

So, am I crazy in thinking this way? Is an elective tax impossible and does it go completely against our tax system? Let me know what you think or if you know more about why something like this would work or not work.

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  • Daedalus

    Taxes were instituted as a system of funding benefits for citizens that some would not be able to afford, and for others with more than enough money to afford it. Taxes are essentially designed to alleviate the cost of services for the less-wealthy at the expense of the upper-class population. Elective taxes are a tricky issue. When do you start paying for them? When would you stop? Does it work like a subscription, like insurance? Do you think men would elect to pay an abortion tax, especially if the cost is high for the wealthy? The people who would pay this tax, like abortion for example, are most likely low to middle income people who may need this service, and therefore without the wealthy to fund it as a forced tax would provide, it may be too expensive to actually be a feasible idea. Essentially it would become an insurance policy, and to be honest, that is what it should be.

  • http://www.bayphillips.com Bay Phillips

    That’s a very good point. I went to go look into insurance policies that cover abortions, and found that many already do; however, and this is where a lot of the political discourse comes from, some states actually prohibit private insurance policies from covering it while other require women to pay an additional fee for it (so essentially an elective tax). The page that had this information was here: http://www.naral.org/choice-action-center/in_your_state/who-decides/maps-and-charts/map.jsp?mapID=5