Health & Fitness
How We Can Fill Potholes & Save Homeowners
Minneapolitans hate potholes and property tax increases. Let the people of Minneapolis fix potholes voluntarily with $10, low-return bonds that can be purchased securely on a smartphone app.
Most Minneapolitans love to bike, but we all end up in situations, like all Americans, in which we need a couple more wheels to get around. Cars are a foundational building block of a modern society: they are comfortable for longer rides, they require little-to-no physical effort, they have sufficient utility, and, most importantly, they are safe and fast. The quality of driving that many have in Western Europe, however, is difficult to achieve for us due to one big obstacle: potholes.
Minneapolis pays for our potholes largely with property taxes, which have a regressive effect on many Minneapolitans. Older couples who’ve lived in neighborhoods that have become more expensive are being kicked out of their homes due to property taxes, even though they’ve done nothing wrong. Conservatives and liberals alike can agree that taxes can hurt people. Instead of Minneapolis kicking Beverly and Herb out of their Kenwood residency to fix our potholes, why not ask Minneapolitans to voluntarily pay to fix potholes?
My theory is that people are willing to pay for things they want, especially if they don’t lose money. People want Western European-grade streets, so how about Minneapolis sells $10, 1-year bonds, so anyone can choose to fix their roads and make a little dough, too.
The city would have to market the program extremely well, and it would absolutely have to make it as simple as possible to buy pothole bonds. People should be able to buy them on their phones through an app and be paid without requiring to give their Social Security numbers or banking information. People would only receive returns on their bonds after their 1-year investment matures, and those returns would be as low as possible, in order to keep costs to city taxpayers low.
As long as people keep enough money in the program, our potholes could be fixed using less and less taxpayer money. Although this investment wouldn’t be recommended to multiply your dollars, people would be willing to invest in it nevertheless for one simple reason: they hate potholes. I hope the Minneapolis City Council and Mayor RT Rybak consider this proposal, so we can help homeowners and fill in those damn craters once and for all.
