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Minnesota Senator Says Email Tax Might Reduce Spam
indros13 writes "The Hon. Mark Dayton, Senator from Minnesota, is reportedly considering a "miniscule email tax" to counter the flood of spam. Thinking like an economist, he's obviously hoping to make mass emailing unprofitable. 'You can't say, "We want it to be totally free and unrestricted and on the other hand we want it to work smoothly and civilly," he said.' No word on how all those lobbying groups that use mass emails will respond, but I'm sure there are a few emails on the way..." Politician weasel words are part of the package, though; Dayton says a tax is "just one of the tactics that should be considered, but I don't favor it at this time."
Actually, it does. In China and Japan, at least.
Not japan, to my knowledge. It's a civilized democracy, and has been for quite some time.
As usual, Slashdot is pissing and moaning to the WRONG PLACE. If you want the government off the back of the Internet, TELL A SENATOR. You can contact Dayton here:
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Actually, it does. In China and Japan, at least.
That's 100% backwards. Japan doesn't try to reduce childbirth, and has no worries about overpopulation. It's got a birthrate of much less than 2 kids per family, and the government is terrified. (They're fearful that the future won't have enough citizens to tax- a problem the US might face in the 2ks as well).
That low rate is apparently the natural consequence of wealthy people in constricted space; nobody wants their kids to live on smaller lots than they do, so situations where children would outnumber parents are avoided. They'd hate to divide an inheritance 3+ ways. (And even if most families desire 2 kids, miscellaneous factors lead to them failing to achieve that goal, giving an overall rate of 1.85 kids or so)
The government has been working on many projects to encourage families to reproduce more. Some of these have approached the form of negative-taxes, where the taxes on "parasite singles" go to childcare for breeders.
I can only get a dial-up account. I can't get a cable modem or DSL in this area. That's been true in the four places I've lived, all in Dallas, over the past 7-8 years.
I currently receive around 400 spams a day. In order to run a bayesian filter, I would have to download all of those messages first, then let the filter sort through them, before I could look at my legitimate mail. That's not a good solution.
In theory, a bayesian filter can run on the server. I'm told that there are some that do that. But then you lose the ability to interact with the program, telling it "This was spam you let through" and "this was legitimate mail which you didn't deliver". The ones currently available let you do those things via a website. Sure, that's what I want to do, go to a website to figure out where my legitimate mail is at. Sorry, I'm just not willing to waste that much time.