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What if you could help decide how the government spends public funds? | Shari Davis

Visit to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more. What if you could help decide how the government spends public funds in your community? That’s the idea behind participatory budgeting, a process that brings local residents and governments together to develop concrete solutions to real problems close to…

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What if you could help decide how the government spends public funds in your community? That’s the idea behind participatory budgeting, a process that brings local residents and governments together to develop concrete solutions to real problems close to home. In this inspiring call to action, community leader Shari Davis shows how participatory budgeting can strengthen democracy, transform neighborhoods and cities — and give everyone a seat at the table. “We’ve got to open the doors to city halls and schools so wide that people can’t help but walk in,” she says.

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71 Comments

  1. The Jim

    August 13, 2020 at 6:07 pm

    What if TED stopped spreading propaganda?

  2. Natural Technologist

    August 13, 2020 at 6:08 pm

    There is no question because EVERYTHING that you do and don’t do throughout your whole life also decides what the government does and doesn’t do. Maybe next life we’ll do more than just figure that out. By the way, Black Live Matters is a terrorist organization and IF you did your own research to no end you’d figure that out as well.

  3. Michael Perevoznyk

    August 13, 2020 at 6:22 pm

    That would be the worst thing happened to the state and people. 80% of the voter are irrational dudes with 0% of economics, law and philosophy. They have several false bias, like bias about market and price regulations, protectionism bias, and anti capitalism bias. That would destroy the society

    • Susan An INTP

      August 13, 2020 at 9:22 pm

      Hey! Maybe they dont know, but people do want to help. Why not assist us in doing so? 🙂

  4. hdmat101

    August 13, 2020 at 6:29 pm

    What if we removed some taxes and replaced it with a system where the people can choose where their money is allocated to. Think about how much more money you’ll have for science, technology, education,healty and infrastructure.

    • jacobawojtowicz

      August 13, 2020 at 10:43 pm

      You mean what if we stopped making politicians rich and everyone got to choose where to spend their money? Google Voluntaryism

  5. Psycho

    August 13, 2020 at 6:45 pm

    Starts off with the typical blaming of all white men then goes into a speech about how everything should be decided by youth to be inclusive of everyone. Preaches being inclusiveness while dismissing groups based on age, gender, sexuality, and race. Very little of this had anything to do with public deciding how government spends funds.

  6. Solcrates

    August 13, 2020 at 6:46 pm

    I know ted talks have been pathetic for years, but does anyone know when it actually started?

  7. Merv Eleazar

    August 13, 2020 at 6:51 pm

    The problem with today’s society is that there aren’t enough people “in the middle”. Left vs. Right…Right vs. Left. So much mud-slinging going on while the people continue to struggle. We’ve got babies running countries.

  8. Astres

    August 13, 2020 at 8:02 pm

    Just stop reproducing ppl.

  9. Andrew Kaylor

    August 13, 2020 at 8:50 pm

    This. Is. Dope! Thanks for the work that you are doing and those you inspire along the way.

  10. Brett

    August 13, 2020 at 9:17 pm

    Pure democracy would be the end of the country.

  11. Brett

    August 13, 2020 at 9:19 pm

    I get so sick of the whining about history.

  12. Brett

    August 13, 2020 at 9:20 pm

    “PB” would result in people just giving themselves money.

  13. Brett

    August 13, 2020 at 9:21 pm

    Oh my gawd! She can’t be naive!

  14. Susan An INTP

    August 13, 2020 at 9:28 pm

    Hello! If you think she’s racist because she said that this country was founded for rich white men- who do you think it was founded for? Very few of the founding fathers didn’t own slaves. They were often rich, had money in their own right, and yes, were all white.

    • Lei P

      August 14, 2020 at 12:52 am

      But white people abolished slavery. And black people in africa sold blacks to the Europeans in the first place. White people won the global colonisation war so of course it was set up to benefit the winners. Parts of Africa still practice slavery today. Focus your energy there.

  15. Goy Goddess 2

    August 13, 2020 at 9:47 pm

    DeMOCKracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what is for dinner.

  16. Dolphin Rider

    August 13, 2020 at 10:01 pm

    We wanted to make sure that EVERYONE (minority groups) had a voice lol

  17. finallyanime

    August 13, 2020 at 10:13 pm

    Reparations, stop messing around

    • Lei P

      August 14, 2020 at 12:53 am

      No. Get a job instead you bum.

  18. Jack Liu

    August 13, 2020 at 10:33 pm

    Thanks for sharing.

  19. jacobawojtowicz

    August 13, 2020 at 10:37 pm

    If you want to decide where your money goes, dont give it to the government. CHOOSING what you feel is important to spend on is what the private sector does. Google voluntaryism

  20. TruthSeeker

    August 13, 2020 at 10:42 pm

    Down with the Cabal

  21. Bruce H.

    August 13, 2020 at 11:04 pm

    She speaks of white males and immediately touches on corruption – equating the two. Then hoping for change. What’s currently happening around us right now is corruption and thuggery and preventing others to talk, and guess what – ITS NOT THE WHITE MALES.

  22. Startup Funding Event Global

    August 14, 2020 at 12:45 am

    Politicians will never let us play politics..

    • Julian Ioisi

      August 14, 2020 at 6:10 am

      For good reason. Do you want half the people below average intelligence in your country to be making laws and deciding what needs to be done?

    • Trebor Ironwolfe

      August 14, 2020 at 8:27 am

      They won’t even let me play on their golf course.

  23. Kirk Turner

    August 14, 2020 at 12:46 am

    You can. Vote. If you live in Chicago vote early and vote often 😉

  24. Barry G

    August 14, 2020 at 1:19 am

    Key word she used radical.

  25. Brokkoli OMG

    August 14, 2020 at 1:20 am

    The idea sounds interesting but I don’t know if the formula is right.
    It sounds like Boston just gave the group a million dollars and said “do what you want with it as long as it goes into our city”, right?
    I would do it differently.

    First, the government does your taxes (they already have all the data). They could send you your tax returns, you swiftly review it and approve it.
    Then, and that’s the PB part, you have the OPTION to fill in an institution or place you want part of your paid taxes to go into. Let’s say every citizen could choose upon 10% of their taxes where this goes to. If you paid 50k$ in taxes you can decide where 5k$ of this money goes to. NASA? The military? Renewable energy? The EPA? A certain city or even neighborhood? As long as it doesn’t hugely increase bureaucracy I would say this is another, in my view better, solution for pb. Seeing participation in where your taxes go into.

  26. William Self

    August 14, 2020 at 1:43 am

    WOW! AMAZING

  27. asmacarthur

    August 14, 2020 at 3:22 am

    Is not that the point of democracy?
    All taxes are collected under threat of force.
    Perhaps we ought go back to only tax payers being able to vote.
    & why not?

  28. Yussif Jaber

    August 14, 2020 at 3:22 am

    The system you are speaking about will not work because it will require everyone to be involved in the decisions. It is hard enough to get people to get educated and vote in the few elections we have now. What you are basically doing is giving more power to people who don’t know what or how to vote. Instead of selling this dream, because a lot of people have thought about it already, why don’t you give more specific examples on what policies/funding should be given more rights for the people to vote on? What other incentives will motivate people to go out of their way to make decisions in their sedentary lifestyle.
    It is fun to dream as I like to too for a democratic utopian state. But to get everyone to be politicians and work other jobs isn’t reality. People want others in charge so they can live sedentarily, unfortunately that is what people care about more.

  29. wquon2007

    August 14, 2020 at 3:27 am

    we’re not a democracy, & if the issue is that big the private sector will do it better & cheaper. also, there’s many “minority” groups that (on average) make more than white people. stop demonizing.

  30. acajudi100

    August 14, 2020 at 4:10 am

    Please copy and post the below all around the internet! They are deleting my comments, because they are the TRUTH. They will not mess with the Sturgis motorcycle rally in South Dakota, or the looters from the top to the bottom.Please add what you want. They unsubscribe, cut off my internet etc. I know the evil demons are on our computers, for these are their last days.

    God bless everyone and TRUTH will win! Much RESPECT and we LOVE YOU!!!

  31. shawn Chen

    August 14, 2020 at 4:37 am

    Who can tell me what’s the “recovering government employee” mean?

    • 2 flowers

      August 14, 2020 at 1:27 pm

      It’s just a joke, kind of like she’s recovering from trauma

    • Shawn Chen

      August 15, 2020 at 7:26 am

      @2 flowers Thanks

  32. Soreya Noon Kleine

    August 14, 2020 at 5:48 am

    💖💖💖

  33. Henry Fenand

    August 14, 2020 at 6:24 am

    If anyone wants to download this video for offline viewing or save it as audio to improve your English listening skill, you can use VideoHunter

  34. Trebor Ironwolfe

    August 14, 2020 at 7:44 am

    “rich white men”. The trifecta of all things evil, I suppose. At least there is some comfort in knowing that poor people have never stole, people of color have never killed, and women have never lied.

  35. Trebor Ironwolfe

    August 14, 2020 at 8:02 am

    The PB philosophy might do well at first, but it would quickly accelerate the development of radical factions. Micromanaging democracy, IMO, is exactly what rips it apart — If a major decision is won by the majority, much of the minority will either become silently disgruntled, move elsewhere, or they will form their own majority to rebel against the rival majority. As you scale this up, it’s a miracle that democracy even works at all. I feel that most people easily forget the fact that our US government was kinda drafted-on-the-fly, so to speak, kinda like how Lincoln wrote his “Gettysburg Address” and how MLK improvised his “I have a dream!” speech.

  36. Dirk Diggler

    August 14, 2020 at 12:25 pm

    What a bunch of racist crap.

  37. Big Dee

    August 14, 2020 at 3:59 pm

    Another full time professional victim … yawn 🥱

  38. هد يل

    August 14, 2020 at 4:26 pm

    Who is watching ted talks just in order to improve his/her english like me…

    • 예의바른 코리안코커

      August 17, 2020 at 1:08 pm

      I do

    • Dream Gatcha

      August 18, 2020 at 9:36 am

      I do too😅

  39. Stig Helmer

    August 14, 2020 at 6:26 pm

    This sounds like a nice idea but this will erode democracy by moving the power away from the people into government sanctioned decision making groups. This is how Marxists always marketing their ideas – “hey lets make a community group, I’ll be the leader, this will be great…”

  40. Max D

    August 14, 2020 at 7:05 pm

    Go Capitalism!!! Go Libertarian!!!
    A Free Market, then everyone can choose what they want to do with their own earned money.
    Don’t let others decide how to spend YOUR money!!!
    Democrazy is the oppression of the minority by the majority…

  41. Paul Fidika

    August 14, 2020 at 10:59 pm

    1. gov budget should always be balanced (raise taxes or cut spending) except for times of crisis / recession.
    2. budget should be allocated by a group of non-partisan professionals with clearly defined goal-metrics
    3. having random uninformed people vote on how to spend tax dollars sounds like a disaster waiting to happen

  42. STOP/RESET

    August 14, 2020 at 11:00 pm

    That would never happen because spending on immigration and affirmative action for nonwhites would immediately drop by 80%

  43. James Aseltine

    August 15, 2020 at 1:24 am

    Den wed b betr off maybe still sounds like a headache no wonder why is all mesd up amazing how much a difference can make prolly just rotate it take sum of da weight off the regular guy an dispurs it dat way dat choices are well rounded

  44. Charlie KINGSTON

    August 15, 2020 at 2:34 am

    First thing I’ll get rid of Hollywood then Vegas then all the penthouses, then we work on the drug rings. Alone with the youth juveniles

    • Rebecca Leeman

      August 16, 2020 at 6:38 am

      Penthouses ???
      You dont like a home with a great view?

    • Charlie KINGSTON

      August 16, 2020 at 2:23 pm

      @Rebecca Leeman people who understood me will know what I’m saying otherwise the filter will get me.

    • Rebecca Leeman

      August 16, 2020 at 7:23 pm

      What . Why ?
      Because you want to be alone with the juveniles ??

    • Charlie KINGSTON

      August 18, 2020 at 3:48 am

      @Rebecca Leeman with you

    • Charlie KINGSTON

      August 18, 2020 at 3:49 am

      @Rebecca Leeman go seek help

    • Rebecca Leeman

      August 18, 2020 at 4:39 am

      @Charlie KINGSTON
      Now you want to be alone with me?!
      No thanks, I dont date druggies.

    • Charlie KINGSTON

      August 18, 2020 at 5:39 am

      @Rebecca Leeman don’t judge people with your anger you don’t know me

  45. D. Brown

    August 15, 2020 at 4:33 am

    I have shared many Ted Talks. This biased one I will not.

  46. Tripper Tv Arabic

    August 15, 2020 at 9:18 am

    thanks good luck..

  47. Selvi Mathias

    August 15, 2020 at 5:38 pm

    Thank😊

  48. Phyllobates Terribilis

    August 16, 2020 at 2:10 am

    Another racist spewing their bile for TED – I’m shocked.

  49. Sardo Numspa

    August 16, 2020 at 5:16 am

    Aka You don’t actually live in a true Democracy….

  50. Savickas

    August 16, 2020 at 5:29 am

    how about TED let’s us think different and not frontload the comments

  51. ITouchTheSky 8GladysWorld8

    August 16, 2020 at 11:29 am

    Thank you so much for talking of this topic.

  52. Ricky Hiley

    August 16, 2020 at 12:47 pm

    Congress doesn’t give a dam about the poor, black or white!
    – Adam Clayton Powell

  53. D Akashi

    August 17, 2020 at 10:56 am

    Good surprise that this brilliant project is originally Brazilian. I’ll spread this among my friends so we all can engage truly and build the future we Brazilians dream and deserve!

  54. AJ Elder

    August 18, 2020 at 10:55 am

    Shari Davis you inspire me; I believe you are destined for greatness~

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