What about costly signals? E.g. every year, each state chooses how much money they donate to the federal government. Their voting power in the second chamber is proportional to the size of their donation.
That might have some funny properties. Suppose that New York and Texas were equally rich, but New Yorkers uniformly want more government than Texans do. Texans would be made to pay more than New Yorkers are willing to, in order to outvote the New Yorkers and not actually use that money in the federal budget. At that point, the excess donations would presumably be returned to the states or the people.
So maybe this ends up being another second-price auction?
seems fine? if some states are willing to tax their citizens a lot more than other states and give all of that money to the federal government, seems reasonable to give them more say? and of course if they go too far, the residents there can simply choose to leave to a different state, just like they can now.
spending excess money seems way easier than the opposite problem. worst case you just stash it away. but realistically spending will always be ballooning out of control.
What about costly signals? E.g. every year, each state chooses how much money they donate to the federal government. Their voting power in the second chamber is proportional to the size of their donation.
That might have some funny properties. Suppose that New York and Texas were equally rich, but New Yorkers uniformly want more government than Texans do. Texans would be made to pay more than New Yorkers are willing to, in order to outvote the New Yorkers and not actually use that money in the federal budget. At that point, the excess donations would presumably be returned to the states or the people.
So maybe this ends up being another second-price auction?
seems fine? if some states are willing to tax their citizens a lot more than other states and give all of that money to the federal government, seems reasonable to give them more say? and of course if they go too far, the residents there can simply choose to leave to a different state, just like they can now.
spending excess money seems way easier than the opposite problem. worst case you just stash it away. but realistically spending will always be ballooning out of control.