The Obsolete Cartel Tax
Some French lawmakers are currently batting around an idea for a tax on internet service providers to subsidize the printed press.
My first idea was to compare this to a tax on newborns to subsidize retirees but of course it already exists, it’s called public sector debt. So I tried to come up with better comparisons: a tax on maternity hospitals to subsidize funeral homes? A tax on jogging to subsidize cigarettes? A tax on vegetables to subsidize McDonald’s?
Come on, help me out here.
A tax on Priuses to subsidize GM ?
— Marie-Laure · Jun 14, 10:53 AM · #
A tax on self-identified small-l libertarians to subsidize seasteading.
— Nayagan · Jun 14, 11:37 AM · #
It’s this exactly what Conor et al are proposing with all their talk about non-profit journalism?
— Tony Comstock · Jun 14, 11:46 AM · #
A tax on DVDs to subsidize eight-tracks.
A tax on fiber optic cable to subsidize carrier pigeon breeders.
— Erik Siegrist · Jun 14, 01:49 PM · #
Tony: I don’t think Conor wants to force people to pay for non-profit journalism (which I think is a fine idea btw).
But I’m curious as to whether Conor thinks this idea is as preposterous as I do.
— PEG · Jun 14, 02:16 PM · #
“Tony: I don’t think Conor wants to force people to pay for non-profit journalism (which I think is a fine idea btw).”
So the subsidy that non-for-profits get materializes out of thin air? Finally a point of common interest between conservative think tank types and lefty government should subsidize the arts folks!
— Tony Comstock · Jun 14, 02:33 PM · #
I may be mistaken, but I don’t think Conor proposed a government subsidy for non-profit journalism, outside of the tax incentives that all non-profits get.
— PEG · Jun 14, 06:04 PM · #
Death to all non-profits that do not involve funny hats!
— Tony Comstock · Jun 14, 06:29 PM · #
Amen to that, brother.
— PEG · Jun 14, 06:35 PM · #
I do not support subsidies to non-profit journalism outlets beyond what all non-profits get, and I do favor silly hats for all journalists, whether they’re working in a for-profit or not-for-profit model.
— Conor Friedersdorf · Jun 14, 06:39 PM · #
Conor, if you’ve got the wear-with-all to wear a bishop’s hat while conducting your investigative reporting, I’ll will fully support non-profit status for your endeavors!
— Tony Comstock · Jun 14, 06:42 PM · #
My first idea was to compare this to a tax on newborns to subsidize retirees but of course it already exists, it’s called public sector debt.
Except that the newborns won’t ever pay that debt, just like the adults who were once kids who had to pay the debt in the future actually aren’t paying. Every generation is said to be selling out the next one; nobody actually ever has to pay the fare. The newborns will just kick it down the road too.
— Freddie · Jun 14, 07:15 PM · #
Freddie: I’m sure that’s what the Argentinians thought.
— PEG · Jun 14, 07:57 PM · #
Also, that’s just not true. Interest payments on debt work out to higher taxes, all else being equal, whatever way you look at it.
— PEG · Jun 14, 07:58 PM · #
LOL.
And the obvious parallel is to a tax on laptops to subsidize typewriter manufacturers, of course.
— John Schwenkler · Jun 14, 08:09 PM · #
Is this proposal in the same vein as the “Subvention de l’Etat accordée aux quotidiens à faibles ressources publicitaires “? Meaning French taxpayers subsidize the Communists’ newspaper “L’humanité” as well as, I assume, the LCR’s “Rouge” newspaper and the Front national’s “Hebdo national”.
— JB · Jun 14, 08:34 PM · #
HAHA! LOL! Haha. You conservatives are so funny, with the netspeak, and the utter electoral irrelevancy.
Bye.
— Freddie · Jun 14, 08:43 PM · #
PEG those newborns will or will not pass on a huge debt of their own to the next generation?
— Freddie · Jun 14, 09:08 PM · #
Yes, and pay higher taxes to sustain interest payments on their forebears’ debt while doing it.
— PEG · Jun 14, 10:18 PM · #
And on and on. Which was what I was saying, which you might have seen if you hadn’t immediately gone into a defensive reaction.
— Freddie · Jun 14, 10:22 PM · #
As to funny hats: how about those fedoras with the card saying “PRESS” stuck in the band, like Clark Kent wears? They could wear those.
— Ethan C. · Jun 15, 04:54 AM · #
Freddie: Well, yeah, ok.
Also, bond markets work in mysterious ways. Certainly looking at demographic figures for other developed countries, Japanese and German sovereign debt won’t always look so attractive. Will this lower the prices of Treasuries even further as investors flock to them, or will it significantly increase their prices? And of course there’s the Chinese question…
So there might yet be a day of reckoning!
— PEG · Jun 15, 07:32 AM · #
http://www.slate.com/id/2189888
— Consumatopia · Jun 15, 01:59 PM · #