Dividend reinvestment is one of investors' most potent weapons. It is also often said that taxes are an investment. Like stocks or crypto, the quality of these investments can vary in quality. Some work out very well, others...not so much.
It would be interesting to see what would happen if you combined the two. Now, the government doesn't pay dividends, but a lot of people do get money back come April after filing. This is money that could possibly be "reinvested". I mean, the government is scrambling for cash due to decades of bad fiscal policy. They're eliminating deductions, raising rates, I even read a while back that they unloaded a substantial amount of bitcoin. I'm not sure when or how the government got their hands on any bitcoin, but there you go. This would be another layer in that endeavor, and it would be a pretty simple one at that.
Now, you might be thinking, "nobody's going to do this". Well, there is one incentive that might draw the eye of both liberal and conservative alike: you get to decide where the money goes. This was one of the major perks of Andrew Yang's presidential platform. The only problem was that his setup only allowed you to allocate 1% of your tax contribution and you were limited to one program. This gives you more options and more capital to play with to move society forward. Congress had its chance, now it's your turn. If you want to fund NASA, schools, infrastructure, healthcare, Space Force, foreign aid, or Social Security directly, or just give the government some breathing room by throwing some cash at the debt, you would now have the capability to so. You could even be given the option to specify whether you want this to cover already existing spending (ie deficit reduction or covering unfunded liabilities) or to be put towards additional funding.
This could also allow for greater accountability, as a government organization that wastes or loses a portion of its funds isn't likely to draw people in to fund their program with reinvested dollars in the future.
Now, this wouldn't be an all or nothing deal. Some people rely on that return, so an individual could keep a portion and reinvest the rest depending on what their budget is, should they so choose. They can decide what ratio works best for them and move from there.
Will this ever happen? Doesn't seem likely. Still, the government does like (and really need) money and people do like the idea of funding stuff, so, win/win?
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