Earmarking taxes for a specific purpose. It may be a clever way to get around public hostility to paying more in taxation. If people are told that a specific share of their income tax will go to some popular cause, say education or health, they may be more willing to cough up. At the very least they may be forced to make more informed decisions about the trade-offs between taxes and public services. There is a downside, however. Hypothecated taxes may tie the hands of a government at times when the hypothecated revenue could be spent to better effect elsewhere in the public sector. Conversely, and perhaps more likely, hypothecated taxes may prove to be less hypothecated than the public is led to believe. Civil servants, doubtless under pressure from their political bosses, can usually find ways to fudge the definition of the specific purpose for which a tax is hypothecated, letting government regain control over how the money is spent.