There's not much about the American system of government that I would recommend to other countries. Despite having an irrational attachment to our constitution--we're brought up to believe that it is the only thing keeping this country from degenerating into lawlessness and helotry--a critical look at the document makes me think we could do a lot better. I mean, the Bill of Rights was a great idea (though even that could use some updating), but the bulk of the constitution, the part that dictates how government operates, could use some real work. And even that doesn't really address the day-to-day operations of the government. The federal legislation that does that is in a sorrier state.

Still, we have one idea that I'm surprised hasn't caught on in other countries--withholding tax. I was unable to determine which countries withhold wages toward income tax, but after hearing for weeks about Italy's trouble collecting tax (to the tune of 27% of its $2 trillion GDP, or $540 billion) I can't help but think that a program of withholding tax would seriously curb this problem. Granted, a significant portion of this estimated underpayment is attributed to the "shadow economy" (read: mafia) in Italy, and this would not be recovered by a payroll deduction. Granted, such a system would take additional infrastructure. But said infrastructure would be, at minimum, self-funding. And then they wouldn't have to publish every Italian's reported income and tax payments.