Originally Posted by
May90
With all this talk nowadays about socialism vs capitalism, I came up with the idea which I've heard of before, but never seen implemented in practice.
What if the government rewarded people for doing certain things deemed healthy and beneficial for the society? For example, families with kids studying well, with the average grade above A-, would get partial tax exempts. People maintaining a good physical shape would get financial bonuses, such as partial governmental coverage of the health insurance of their selection. People not using drugs, not drinking alcohol much, not smoking, etc. could get partial coverage from the government for all groceries they buy... You get the idea.
Would it work well in practice? Obviously, there would be a lot of potential for abuse, issues with people with various natural limits preventing them from meeting the set standards, etc... But I think these issues can be accounted for and, in turn, have governmental programs assisting those people. What would be the drawbacks of such a system?