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[political rant] You want to tax what now?
Aug. 3rd, 2005 01:52 pmOkay, it seems that various senators are proposing a 25% tax on the revenue of pornographic websites. They are doing this, of course, "for the children". That's the old standby for "we want to fuck over some segment of the population, business or what have you, but we want to look like the good guys, so we're going to phrase this so no one wants to vote against it." Expect some silly ass acronym much like the PATRIOT Act where the title only bears a tenuous relationship to the bill.
Now, I do have several problems with this proposal, point by point, detailed below.
1) What is keeping many of these porn-sites from moving servers outside the country? You know, I'm pretty sure the ping-time from Canada or Mexico is probably not that bad... See, the various jackasses running this country seem to have this idea that the entire interweb is located inside this country, and that taxing various types of websites, web-traffic, or such things will result in massive amounts of money because there is nowhere else outside the U.S. that can or will host these things.
2) It's not going to actually cost the porn-sites a dime over the long run. Okay, sure, a few sites might shut down. But most of them will continue to give all interested parties whatever kinks and perversions they want, and if they have to raise their prices a bit so that their net gain remains the same as before this tax, they will.
3) The government says it will use the collected monies to "go to a fund to help police prosecute online child pornographers". That's all well and good. I, in fact, approve not only of prosecuting child pornographers, but also setting fire to them and dancing and dance about on their graves singing "Hallelujah". However, if the government has proven one thing over the decades, it is that it cannot be trusted with money. Assuming that any money is actually collected, it will go to pay for pet projects of various Senators and Representatives, used to bail out other funds, or just plain wasted.
4) This is to protect the children, right? Now, check me if I'm wrong, but can't you currently use any search engine (Google, Yahoo Search, Lycos, etc.) and see porn pics without actually having to access the websites hosting them? Why yes, you can! Can't you use KaZaa (or KaZaa Lite), eDonkey, LimeWire, DC++, or any of a vast number (and ever increasing) of other P2P applications to get all the porn you want without ever having to access a porn website? Why yes, you can! Is your typical 21st century American kid about 60 times as smart as your typical Congress-critter when it comes to anything computer related? Why yes, they are!
It's a bandage on a sucking chest wound. It's nothing but a ploy to make the Congress-critters look good to their constituents so they can get re-elected, and continue to fuck over the people who elected them.
Now, I do have several problems with this proposal, point by point, detailed below.
1) What is keeping many of these porn-sites from moving servers outside the country? You know, I'm pretty sure the ping-time from Canada or Mexico is probably not that bad... See, the various jackasses running this country seem to have this idea that the entire interweb is located inside this country, and that taxing various types of websites, web-traffic, or such things will result in massive amounts of money because there is nowhere else outside the U.S. that can or will host these things.
2) It's not going to actually cost the porn-sites a dime over the long run. Okay, sure, a few sites might shut down. But most of them will continue to give all interested parties whatever kinks and perversions they want, and if they have to raise their prices a bit so that their net gain remains the same as before this tax, they will.
3) The government says it will use the collected monies to "go to a fund to help police prosecute online child pornographers". That's all well and good. I, in fact, approve not only of prosecuting child pornographers, but also setting fire to them and dancing and dance about on their graves singing "Hallelujah". However, if the government has proven one thing over the decades, it is that it cannot be trusted with money. Assuming that any money is actually collected, it will go to pay for pet projects of various Senators and Representatives, used to bail out other funds, or just plain wasted.
4) This is to protect the children, right? Now, check me if I'm wrong, but can't you currently use any search engine (Google, Yahoo Search, Lycos, etc.) and see porn pics without actually having to access the websites hosting them? Why yes, you can! Can't you use KaZaa (or KaZaa Lite), eDonkey, LimeWire, DC++, or any of a vast number (and ever increasing) of other P2P applications to get all the porn you want without ever having to access a porn website? Why yes, you can! Is your typical 21st century American kid about 60 times as smart as your typical Congress-critter when it comes to anything computer related? Why yes, they are!
It's a bandage on a sucking chest wound. It's nothing but a ploy to make the Congress-critters look good to their constituents so they can get re-elected, and continue to fuck over the people who elected them.