By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page klummeskribentFor a few weeks ago I wrote a column about the difficulty of cutting public spending. The problem is the perverse incentives facing politikere.Hvis they do the right thing and cut the threat to their jobs. If they spend, they are rewarded with more aid. Several readers wrote back and suggested solutions. Here are some of their idéer.Ban political activity of public employee unions transferee way to improve the incentive structure drastically would be to make it illegal for public service unions to participate in political activities. Bargaining is fine, but political activity in support of particular candidates, policies and parties are a major cause of out-of-control spending. Just look at Californien.Ikke only that, but it's a great crime against the common good to all citizens in force to pay for political activities that can and very often against their private interesser.James HankinsProf of History Harvard University Shift bureaucratic kulturI moment. Bureaucracy and politicians have no incentive to reduce costs From what I've been told if you do not use all the money allocated to your department you will lose the following year, so even if you have to flush it down the toilet, Using den.Jeg think there should be opportunities to change the culture of bureaucracy, if not politicians. The most dramatic I've heard is to tie federal employees pay for the fiscal health of government. If the government runs a deficit, they take a cut in pay. The bigger the deficit, the greater wages – across the board, to include the Chairman and members of Congress. This creates a very personal price for fiscal irresponsibility. Another option is to reward nøjsomhed.Giv bonuses to those areas of government that does more with less. Tie the level of bonus to the amount of money saved. In such a system, one can maximize his earnings by getting rid of waste, rather than by creating more of det.Ikke too castles in the air, I understand that you must be vigilant against those who want to pad their budgets, so they have easy ways to cut back and play the system. But I think these would be steps in the right retning.Mike SabloffBoonton, NJ.Tie taxes to spending Perhaps there is a way to index the Congressional salaries inaugural taxes. In other words, increased costs would mean more taxes and less spending will mean lower taxes for each member vælgere.For this to work, I agree that everyone should pay taxes to have a meaningful response to this sammenhæng.Andrew Collins Mill Valley , CA.Flet the skatterVi should make our income tax system more honest. It is true that 50 percent do not pay income tax if we do not count Social Security and Medicare taxes. In fact, pay all current payroll taxes for current expenses. There is no trust fund. Therefore we can say that everyone who pays payroll taxes to pay indkomstskat.Hvorfor not make the system more honest and simplify the system? Get rid of the myth that Social Security taxes and Medicare taxes are not income taxes by making it all part of a indkomstskat.På way we could even lower taxes on working poor, just as we made the system more transparent. It would also logically connected to a system of means-testing Social Security. Does Warren Buffet need, or even worry about getting Social Security or Medicare? Another way to align the interests of the Congress with the business is to ensure that they are subject to all rules that companies subject – and to create a special agency to enforce these rules within the government with a "sunshine clause" which requires that the results of this investigation must offentliggøres.Endelig and if one is capricious, so let's subject Congress to a property tax of 3 percent of net assets for a given year that the budget is not afbalanceret.Richard SamuelsonGarwood Visiting Fellow James Madison ProgramPrinceton UniversitySæt lobbyists out of a job I agree with Reynolds [of instapundit.com] must all pay something. To spread the wealth around, as Obama told Joe the Plumber, so the tax burden should also be scattered rundt.Som a wise donkey, Eeyore once said: "You can lead a bear to honey, but you can not make him think. "If more people felt the pinch when costs rise, so they could imagine, before a new election of spenders.Jeg think an eloquent flat tax would open a lot of eyes, because (a) it is fair and (2) no one understands the tax code as it er.Lobbyister? They would be out of a job. Tinkering with the tax code on behalf of unions, seniors, honey bees and oil companies is how we got here. If members of Congress should not spend all the time wined and dined, they would have more time to read the bills they are voting om.Med account expenditure. How about a constitutional amendment limiting the total discretionary spending each year to a percentage of total budget Thus we can see hogs mud fights in the pen on a piece of pork pie. It would be fun. (I am not a CPA, and assume pork falls under the discretionary column. No matter.) Liz HasbrouckOxford, Maryland Cut Feds indtægterMin idea is that we get the federal government out afafgiftsopkrævningsinstanser business, and let any taxing authority with the states, counties and kommuner.Den federal government will be financed by a head tax based on the census, it beløbsom would be determined by Kongressen.Det total head tax amount would Assessment's available budget for the next Congress to use that prevents one Congress to authorize more funds than it is available in actual revenues. The only other income available to the Government will be charges, again, as the previous Congress for the next so that voters can assess and discuss the advantages in time for elections in november.Den tariff income would be an incentive for legislation that promotes trade – more trade, more tariff income to forbrug.Den best feature of this program will be that members of Congress from each state would change from being rewarded for using other states' money, are rewarded for maintaining their own. Picker you will be focused directly on how much each of them had to send to Washington, and will vote for members of Congress who work to keep money in their stater.Meget soon will the federal government to shrink substantially. Jim McMahonLong Beach. CAKlip their lønAlle federal pay excluding uniformed military should be reduced by the percentage of increase in the deficit each year, with the only limit to the amount of the reduction is the federal minimum wage in years 2005.Richard RolloUdvid economy and tax base, some ideas: Massive sell or lease federal land for tax and job producing businesses – 21st Century queue! Open the door to immigration of young educated people (to breathe new life into American companies and create more tax paying citizens). Encourage young educated pays taxes individuals to marry and have many children (to create future taxpayers) through major new incentives and sanctions of the Federal Tax Code. Raise the Social Security retirement age of six months a year in the next 30 years, to increase the number of taxpayers and reduce Social Security udbetalinger.John VolkLancaster, PA.Vi can lower healthcare costs while having fun and playing games. This is not an impossible business – but it calls Washington, DC turning its focus far beyond the ring road and look at what is happening in the burgeoning industry of Social spil.For a few weeks ago, at Venture Beat's Video Beat @ GDC 2010 conference, Tim Chang , a sharp-minded venture capitalists from Norwest Venture Partners spoke on "gamification of life." This Chang meant to say that many aspects of life can become a sort of game, and that in his opinion, these would be the best investments that do in the game industry. This paradigm is also known as funware. It gives huge waves in tech and social media kredse.Ved to play on our sense of reward and punishment, companies can engage customers at new ways, and even help promote certain types of adfærd.Siddende on this sample of social psychology and behavioral economy is a fantastic public policy tool, Chang remarked briefly on his panel. If we applied this "gamification" concept for reforming the health system, we could arrive at a solution that will dramatically reduce the cost of sundhedspleje.Med proliferation of smartphones, sensors, and bar codes, it is not hard to imagine that citizens would be able to enroll in a government or private program that tracked the type of food they eat and exercise they engaged in. It does not even have to be that high-tech: Supermarkets like Safeway already tracking purchases their rebate programs. While companies such as Daily Burn already leading package in the form of physical surveillance, there is still a big chance in food consumption plads.Ved to have a rating system that ranks foods on a sound-to-unhealthy frequencies, companies can build services that plug in to merchant inventories or restaurant menus to help users become more health conscious through what they eat. Points will be awarded for time-consuming healthy products, while the points would be taken away too time consuming unhealthy products. The trick to designing game mechanics, so that users are motivated to list everything they are eating good and dårlige.Under things a step further, one can imagine connecting this service with a government tax rebate program that would tax "bads" ; (unhealthy food) instead of "goods" (healthy food). Economic theory suggests that taxes on junk food would lead to rapid changes in behavior. (For a striking example of this in action, see the paper of Benoit Bosquet environmental tax reform.) But the problem is that such "sin taxes" are widely mocked as "nanny taxes" or worse. Make it a game rather than a tax, however, and let people cash in their points for everything from yoga classes to discounts on farmer's-market purchases, and people could watch the program very forskelligt.Ideen comes with a big warning, however: privacy peace. Privacy watchdogs will no doubt be up in arms over how organizations can track people's eating habits and purchases. Chang replies: "Your privacy ends where I begin to pay for your medical expenses, because you buy crappy food." With all due respect to Chang, it is the wrong attitude – and it actually shows how turning health care into a game is the right approach. There is a new generation of online users are trained to believe that sharing information gives rewards. Rather than making privacy problem, make it fun and social to talk about what you eat and how you udøver.Hvis these proposals still inspire an Orwellian panic among some people, the government need not be the focus of such solutions. As with frequent-flyer programs, private companies partner up and help promote this high-tech, game-based health care reform plan. There are opportunities for sensor makers, finance and accounting houses, database and IT systems managers, and a host of other types of companies that could kick start this whole concept (and makes a lot of money in the process). Regardless of how a health care reform taking shape in America, one thing is certain: gamifying certain aspects of our lives actually appeal to our psychology in ways that are beneficial to both the individual and society as helhed.Chang draw on his thoughts on the best gaming investments after his panel at Games Beat @ GDC 2010: