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Texas Politician Wants Violent Games Tax
Gamepolitics reports that a candidate for the Governor of Texas would pass a violent games tax if elected. From the article: "The Amarillo Globe News is reporting that Republican gubernatorial candidate Star Locke wants to scrap Texas' current property tax system. Instead, Locke would institute new taxes on abortion providers, soft drinks, and violent video games to fund the state's government. Locke, a rancher and builder from Corpus Christi, favors a 50% tax on violent games, as well as a $10,000 tax per abortion and a 10% levy on sweetened soft drinks."
If he was elected he would get rid of a tax he has to pay. And replace it with taxes he won't pay since they would be taxing services he obviously doesn't use? How is that fair?
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There's no way this sort of thing would pass. Texas is in the midst of some funding issues/scandals. And considering I live in Texas and this is the first I've heard of this guy, this is a cheap way to get some publicity for his campaign. Either that or I need to pay more attention to local politics.
"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." -Albert Einstein
Ah, there is the epitome of sustainable government taxation: tax things you want to destroy. Sometimes I wonder what powers these politicians... it sure isn't brains. See, if you succeed in destroying the taxed items, then you have no tax base. So destruction of the taxed items clearly can't be the goal in such a tax proposal: it would deny the government the monies it needs.
So if your goal isn't to destroy the "sin taxed" items (since under his model you only tax things you don't want) then the reality is that you want to encourage or sustain the sin taxed items to help raise funds. Ah, isn't that a great idea? Get elected by claiming that you will remove taxes from things ordinary good folk want, such as property, and shift the burden to evil gamers, loose women and sugar fiends. (Wow, has Texas really become so utopian that those were the worst they could find? My trip to the Dallas BoardGameGeek convention sure didn't make it seem that way.)
One wonders if the people are smart enough to realize that fully funding your government via sin taxes turns you into something similar to Las Vegas, where sin is fully encouraged as long as the taxes are collected. Of course, the prior story on politicians ignoring the facts probably explains this all away anyway.
Sig under construction since 1998.
The colonies declared war on England because they taxed a beverage. And it wasn't even coffee.
What's the current tax per bullet and what's his recommended one?
This guy's the limit!
If he were to introduce a +1% levy on ammunition, i'm sure the state would have a hundred billion surplus by the end of the year.
If i wanted to hear bullshit, i'd go to church.
It sounds like he wants to eliminate the taxes he pays and create "extreme" sin taxes.
The 50% tax on violent video games would get declared unconstitutional most likely. It would be an infringement on freedom or speech (censorship on what the government "thinks" is violent) probably.
Would they even have the state constitutional authority tax put a flat fee tax on abortions? I'm not a lawyer, but I feel something would come up that would overturn that kind of tax.
We have something like the soft drink tax in Washington state, but it's at it's normal sales tax rate. Food items hear, most of them, and when not in a serving environment, don't get sales tax.
There are ways to get rid property taxes. Create a luxury sales tax. Have the sales tax only affect purchases the rich can afford. Electronics over $5k for example. Vehicles over $50k. Anything classified as a yacht. Property purchases (i.e. land) exceeding $1 million.
Corpus Christi is literally the boondocks. Plenty of Texas politicians say stupid things, but this guy doesn't even have a remote chance of being elected. Calling him a "candidate" is extremely far-fetched.
Anybody can spout nonsense; this guy doesn't have the support of any significant number of Texans, so it's silly to use him as an example of modern Texan politics.
I have seen the future, and it is inconvenient.
... and given that he thinks it's a good idea to tax nonintoxicating beverages, I'd suggest he put a largish tax on tea.
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
I wonder if this guy realizes just how many game development houses are currently based in Texas. Taxing violent games into oblivion would most likely force a lot of these developers to relocate, thus losing directly and indirectly associated jobs, future investment, and well, it's just a dick thing to do.
I bet this'll go over really, really well. Lmaonade.
"Apparently so, but suppose you throw a coin enough times. Suppose one day, it lands on its edge."
How about fact that this suggestion effectively make abortion unavailable to the poor in the state of Texas?
This proposal is a raft of bullshit intended to get votes from Christian conservatives and frightened, reactionary idiots. And no doubt, one significant purpose of this proposal is a backdoor attempt to make abortion unavailable de facto to one segment of the population.
Pro- or anti- abortion, don't ignore the important issue - the videogame tax is a minor part of the significance of the proposal.
I'm _hoping_ that people are thinking like I did, which is that a $10,000 tax on abortions will mean that a few people will cross state borders once.
People don't tend to get abortions terribly often, and $10,000 is such a ludicrous amount that he's just forcing people to go out-of-state in a piece of legislation that wouldn't last five minutes, it's so obviously an anti-abortion law by the backdoor.
However, an extra $25 on the price of a game is going to either get paid, or just make Amazon a shedload of cash as everyone orders online - it's not exactly worth a trip to Louisiana each time you want one there.
"I Know You Are But What Am I?"
If you raise the tax high enough, a lot of people will drop the "sin."
Actually, I doubt many people drop the sin. Instead, they will look for illegal, and cheaper alternatives. It's happened with cigarrettes, people are trying to buy them online, or from indian reservations where the taxes aren't charged.
Also, I personally don't agree with abortions, but a $10k tax is NOT the way to get rid of them. Yeah, a lot of people will leave Texas to get them, but a lot of people will go to illegal places, and get an unsafe one, or try to give themselves one.
I'm a very conservative guy, in fact I'm 33 year old software developing, video game playing, gun toting, SUV driving, soda drinking, Jesus freak with a black belt, three daughters, a wife, and a mortgage who would like nothing more than peace on earth in my lifetime. I've played 'violent' video games since there were 'violent' video games. I don't really care for the Grand Theft Auto type of video games, but I've played a couple of them and I don't think I've been warped. I can understand people's frustration with that type of game because it glorifies crime, but guess what, so do %80 of the movies that come out of Hollywood. Almost all video games could be considered violent. Look at Pacman, that weird yellow cannibal that runs around eating 'power pellets' to make him powerful enough to kill the 'ghosts'. Just because someone enjoys playing FPS's, MMORPGs, or other violent games does not mean that they are going to pick up a gun and go on a rampage for laughs. This guy is clueless.
Property taxes in Texas are a little ridiculous, but my daughters will receive a much better public education than I did because of them. If he really wants to do something good for Texas he would be proposing that the borders be properly patrolled. Maybe he should tax illegal immigration. He certainly won't get my vote or any of the other 'conservative' people that I know.
10: PRINT "Everything old is new again."
20: GOTO 10
In his words:
"I'm for prayer in school, and for gay marriage. I'm the only candidate that is for both prayer in schools and gay marriage, and that in itself is a reason to vote for me."
All I know is he is the only candidate actually talking about border protection right now.
... elipses...
PG-rated game, $60 + normal sales tax. = $65
M-rated free mod: $0 + 50% violent game tax = $0
Total cost: $65
Taxes: $5
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
You're a male, guaranteed. Trying to dictate what a woman can do with her body.
Trolling is a art,
I don't know, I only plan on buying one bullet, and after I do he won't be asking for any new taxes.
Want to find other gamers to play board and role playing game
"institute new taxes on abortion providers, soft drinks, and violent video games to fund the state's government."
Sin taxes. More sin taxes.
How did we get to a point in America where such a small number of people are allowed to decide for the larger number of people what is and is not a sin?
Some have tried to tax assorted food items as sin. Some have already sin-taxed alcohol and tobacco. What will be next if this is allowed to continue?
How about watching specific television programs, will that be taxed also? Will anything that is controversial to some be taxed? Maybe religion? Will going to church be considered a sin by some and get that taxed too? It boils down to wanting to curtail the behavior or the activities that they find objectionable with taxes; therby by-passing the legal processes.
Abortion is a privacy issue as current law states.
Video games are a right to speech as current law applies
SoftDrinks Whats next? Will everything we eat and drink that some find questionable be taxed?
This has been another valuable and informative opinion from:
Catahoula!
Hmm... another "typical" knee-jerk reaction, huh? Word to the wise, not all republicans support this guy. In fact, I'm finding it hard to find people that *do*. Oh, and I wonder how you can call me a religious fundamentalist when you don't know me. Nor have I ever tried to push my morals on you. So please, when you judge idiots like this, don't take them for their party, take them for their own damn self.
Want to find other gamers to play board and role playing game
In general, don't you find that conspicuously pious posturing and an inability to think through consequences go hand in hand?
Seriously. This guy is probably a so-called "small government" conservative, too, but he has no problem with the idea of government regulating which video games are violent, and which aren't quite violent enough, to require his new tax.
At least with tobacco and alcohol, which are the classic models for this, you can make the case that the tax money partly addresses problems created by the "sin" in question. Don't even get me started on the abortion side of this. That's unreal. (If you're pro-life, do you really want an idiot like this on your side? Work on Roe V. Wade, whatever, but a $10,000 tax? That's just dumb, and would be about as legal as Jim Crow poll taxes.)
The problem's with the folks what elected this bumpkin. Note to American voters: if you're looking for a good, decent person to hold office, try finding someone who actually struggles with moral questions, rather than someone who claims they're easy to decided on for reasons of religious faith or whatever. People who think moral questions are easy are either a) of Godlike divinity; or b) on the wrong side of those questions, but wearing a nice white robe because it gets them power. And I'm fairly sure this guy isn't divine.
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
Currently there are movements to completely ban any and all reference to any and all religion from public schools, while others are trying to get 'intelligent design' included in the curriculum. I personally think that they are both wrong.
Prayer and religion (or lack thereof) should be up to the student, not up to the school.
... elipses...
A republican reels out an illogical, unjust and morally oppressive proposition to tax people who don't fit into their puritanical world view.
unlike the democrats who like taxes on smoking and other 'sins'. Or the Democrats in Massachusetts who were pushing taxes on 'unhealthy' foods (which would include sweet drinks).
Stupiditiy exists on both sides of the aisle my friend.
"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge"
- Charles Darwin
Or an open-air barbeque license. They say you can't breathe the air in Texas and still claim to be a vegetarian what with all the meat particles from backyard barbequeing. There's gotta be tax revenue in that.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?