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Except in the real world.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/switzerland...

But the US government seems to be doing a pretty good job of just that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CBO_-_Revenues_and_Outlays...

California might be considered a counter-counter-example: http://www.economist.com/node/18586520

If you really believe that the populace are so stupid as to think that they can get services without paying for them, why would they not elect representatives that promise the same thing?

Representation rather than direct democracy does not help at all here.

The people already do vote for such representatives.

Then representative democracy is no better than direct democracy in this case which was the point I was trying to make.

Direct democracy enables citizens to vote for a balanced budget as well.

Even though a balanced budget is in everyone's general interest, it is often specifically against a huge number of people's interest. Direct democracy of the kind Hollingsworth is putting forward is possibly an improvement, but it doesn't solve the issue of people voting for other people to pay.