Lower taxes for a better community
Governments can use grants, subsidies, and tax breaks to incentivize organizations to take certain actions. When our government chooses how to shape the lives of their many citizens, they need to take a broader view of the options and the impacts.
Complex problems are often vague and have many possible solutions. The Meta-Problem Method may lead you far away from the dilemma that started your quest. That’s because the method forces you to clarify what you really want and what you are willing to give up. It enables you to compare objectively the possible pathways and their trade offs. It prevents you locking into solutions mode too early and then doubling down on solving a low-yield problem that does not serve your goals as well as the alternatives. At the end of this process, you will have a better understanding of your priorities and how to achieve them.
Steps in the Meta-Problem Method
Dilemma
The high-level issue you are trying to address
Provide financial incentives to create a better community for our citizens.
Goal
The changes you want to make to address the dilemma. There are usually many options.
Supporting Goals
- New businesses choose to create jobs in our community.
- Taxpayer dollars directly benefit our citizens.
Other goals could include an increased number of cultural programs, support for specific groups of citizens, or lower overall taxes on the community.
Problem Space
The set of problems you could chose to solve to advance your goals, plus the constraints that hold you back.
Example problems
- How can government encourage businesses to create new jobs in our community? Maybe the problem to solve is “What would it take to incentivize companies to choose us?”
- What options does the government have to use taxpayer dollars to benefit citizens? Maybe the problem to solve is “Which targeted tax cuts will most benefit our people?”
There are many other potential problems to solve related to government incentives. Each goal has many possible problems we could link to it. Are there other problems linked to these first two goals? Which options come to mind for the other goals?
High-Yield Problems
Sometimes solving one problem helps make progress towards several goals. In this step, we identify these “two-for-the-price-of-one” problems.
Which options will advance more than one goal?
- Offering tax breaks for a new company can create new jobs in the community. However, it may not directly benefit citizens, it will not encourage new cultural programs which are expected to make less money, and it’s unlikely to support specific subgroups like seniors.
- Offering tax breaks to subsidize housing can bring new citizens to the region, directly benefit those citizens, reduce taxes on the community, and support targeted subgroups. However, it may not encourage new company investment in the region or lead to new cultural programs.
There are many potential solutions that will have varying effects on the set of goals. Which alternatives improve the most important goals? How might the unknown change the right path forward? What other possible solutions are there to address the dilemma?
Problem Selection
Which of the many possible options in the high-yield problem step is the best set to address the dilemma?
- Which solutions make the most sense as a citizen?
- Which solutions will best address the dilemma?
- Which solutions will deliver the best outcome for the least amount of time, effort and money?
Implement, Learn and Adapt
Check continuously that you are still solving the best problem, as new information emerges.
Observe and learn as you go. As new information reveals itself, check continuously that you’re still solving the right problem.