When Politicians Tax Violent Video Games

talien79 writes "Taxing video games has a storied history in state legislatures. The reality is that video games, violent or otherwise, simply make too much money to be stopped. But taxing them is a viable compromise, a 'sin tax' of sorts similar to that levied on cigarettes. This article reviews the time-honored tactic of politicians pandering to their base: taxing violent video games."

Comments

As a Buddhist I find "sin" taxes contradictory

[scorp1us]

Having been raised protestant, I can see the idea of these "sin" taxes being a good thing. However since switching to Buddhism (which only has 4 sins, but a lot of FSM style "I rather you didn't"s), I have to question if the use of the sin tax is being wielded the best.

In a really free country with total separation of church and state, the Judeao-Christian set of sins should not be the defacto standard. Rather, they should be set by what is truly great for society. The problem is, that any tax is government control. The only real tax a country can have is a flat tax on consumption. But therein lies the problem. If you tax consumption, you adversely affect the GDP.

Could it be that there are is a set of taxes which won't bog down GDP and still not attempt to control the population? Well, there will always be some control, but we need to structure the taxes in such a way as to direct the person to not bog down the country. Here, I suggest a tax on borrowing. We'd turn the country around in no time if you had to borrow 10-20% more to pay the taxes on it. People would wait longer, and scrutinize their borrowing if they would immediately "be in the hole" (negative equity). Another area is in medical, where a tax on late-term care (when you wait too long and have a bigger more expensive problem than if you just came in when you knew something was wrong). Toxic pollution taxes.

In short, any situation we want to destroy, we tax. Rather than what we do today, where we tax what we need. 20% cellphone taxes in NYC. 20% income tax, taxes on water, electricity and gas. Property taxes (you have to live somewhere, unless you're on a boat). If we really wanted to make this country great, we'd tax what we want to destroy. Not what we are made out of, even if that includes sin.