The Dummy Tax

• We are in debt.
• We are apathetic.
• We don't vote.
• If you don't vote you can't complain.

From here on out let's have a tax on those who don't vote. If you have a religious problem with taxes we will call it a tax-credit for you. (Makes it seem like you are saving something.)

Here is how it works. At the beginning of the year every citizen has a price placed on their head of $50. You have to pay this tax once you turn 18.

You get a tax-credit for voting in your local district that can be applied to your federal tax return at the end of the year. If you vote in the general election you get a $25 reduction. The reductions for the primaries are split equally among the number performed in the previous tax year. One primary gets $25. Two primaries are worth $12.50 each.

The county election board will report all those who voted in each election to the IRS so that you can claim your deduction properly. This will also help correct any anomalies related to people who have more than one home. You vote once in the elections - and it will be easier to track.

If the 100 million people who did not vote in the 2008 elections were charged this way that would be roughly 100 million times $50 or $5 billion in the treasury for essentially doing nothing.

The really fun part of this will be the reports that will get generated by the media touting the dumbest and smartest states or locales. We now have a metric - did you vote? If you didn't vote with this system - you are a dummy. Those would make great news stories.

Calculate the per-capita dummies for an area. It becomes another metric for the real estate folks.

And if a state or locale want to be known as dummies - great ! The rest of us get something out of it. They can get the attention for being a dummy and we get their cash.

If you want to be proud to be stupid - thanks - I appreciate it.

Let's tax these dummies. They don't have the right to complain.