Kiva.org - Imagine if this is how you paid your taxes.

Imagine a government site like Kiva.org that has local and national projects that you can allocate your tax money to rather than letting the government pick and choose where it needs to be spent. Granted I believe 25% of the tax money should still go to the government to be spent on projects that they feel are important, but the other 75% should be for us to distribute. Lets say they are building a community center in your home town. Your local government will have to convince you to spend money on this community center, and only the people who want it will fund it. This means they will need to break down the costs for you. Which also means, if they are charging tax payers $30,000 for each toilet, the project is not going to be funded. If the project is not funded by a certain date, the tax money returns to the individual to be allocated to another project.

Let says maybe 5-10% of your tax money had to go to helping someone in need in your community and you got to pick where you would to distribute the money. Would you invest into welfare? Don't believe in welfare? How about helping people who lost their jobs find another job? Social services? Etc. If it was more specific and you could read actual situations certain families are going through, lets say drug addictions, lost wages from lost jobs, not being able to afford health care, someone with cancer who cannot afford treatment. I think a program like this would bring us all together and give everyone the personal satisfaction of directly helping someone in need, thus boosting the morale of the people and their trust in the government.