I actually think 'bounties' for code are a good idea and actually have been fortunate enough to have been paid to work on an opensource project. Not to long ago I was paid to develop a plugin for wings that is now distributed with the program. This plugin I am told benefited a lot of people in general, and some very special individuals specifically.
If we lived in a perfect world that plugin would have been developed regardless of there being a reward, but we don't. Many times people need a more tangible incentive to do things, but this incentive dosn't have to be money! Perhaps it would be more in keeping with the spirit of the blender community to adopt a 'gift' model instead. Instead of money, people could offer books about 3d graphics programming in exchange for features. A good book is priceless in my opinion, and these sorts of books would contribute to the programmers ability to further blenders development. I for one would happily implement some features in exchange for two books about graph theory that I have been eyeing on amazon.com

For very very small features people could donate beer, a music CD or some other cheap item. The important thing is that people have realistic expecations about how much work is involved in implementing any given feature.The foundations involvment in this would be nice, since it would need some moderation. It may be enough to require that all the dialouge about bounties takes place in a public forum on this website so there is a public record of what transaction is to take place.
As an aside, if the feature being developed is going to be submitted for inclusion into the official releases it should go past someone who has authority in the foundation first. It is crucial that everyone has realistic expectations about what is feasible given the current state of blenders code. It is not nessecarilly 'wise' to implement some things right now, and some prudence could save some wasted work in the long run.
This is a good idea youngbatcat/moneyYay!/whateveryournickisthisweek. Keep working on it!
Cheers,
Zarf.