Councilman Proposes Email Tax To Save Post Office

I searched and didnt find a thread on this but that doesnt mean there isnt one?? Mod's please remove if one has been started. (new search feature doesnt always find it)

In order to try and help ressurect the sagging fortunes of the U.S. Postal Service, Berkeley city Councilman Wozniak has suggested putting a tax on email.

As for now, it wouldnt be legal until Congress allows the expiration of the Internet Tax Freedom Act in 2014.

sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com...

I'm going to make a safe assumption here. She didn't attend or graduate from the University located in her little town. She couldn't have with that type of idea sprouting like a bad weed. Wow... They elected this to City Council??

reply to post by Kituwa


How about yet another tax on automobiles to keep the makers of horse buggies in business?

Or while we are at it, a tax on keyboards to keep those typewriter factories going?

That councilman is crazy.

reply to post by ollncasino


tax on keyboards to keep those typewriter factories going

Sadly,

it may happen when the Internet Tax Freedom Act expires.

Originally posted by ollncasino
reply to post by Kituwa

 

How about yet another tax on automobiles to keep the makers of horse buggies in business?

Or while we are at it, a tax on keyboards to keep those typewriter factories going?

That councilman is crazy.

hehehe that was funny, if you don't mind, I'll add a couple.

Taxing: satellites to keep the rabbit ear companies, video games to keep milton bradley in business, toilet makers to keep outhouse factories going.

reply to post by Gridrebel




Careful, you may be giving them idea's.

Maybe next will be a "packet tax"... 1 penny for every "packet" going into your home, 1 penny for every outgoing "packet"... it will add up quick.
I also hear that the Obama administration is thinking about canceling daylight savings time, and keeping all of those extra hours to add on to the end of the year... making the tax year a month longer. I hear they are gonna call the new month "Obamuary"
It would serve to explain why he hates Arizona so much

I think that we need to TAX our elected officials for every word of ignorance that they speak.

We would raise lots of revenue...

Originally posted by Wrabbit2000
I'm going to make a safe assumption here. She didn't attend or graduate from the University located in her little town. She couldn't have with that type of idea sprouting like a bad weed. Wow... They elected this to City Council??

It is quite astounding isn't it

Makes me wonder what went on in her head. I figure that her logic was since regular post and e-mail are sort of similar that it is therefore ok to tax the use of e-mails. -Fullstop

She somehow ofcourse, forgot that e-mails are send over the internet for which people already pay acces and that it is not possible to start a monopoly on e-mail clients. Not to mention public reaction for taxing them for something that does not require taxation other then to keep some company afloat....

Bolded part is basically her reasoning all by itself. The nerve of these people.

It's unfortunate,many in Politics at all levels can only propose one option to ever fix anything....to raise taxes, which never fixes the problems for anything.
The post office already proposed cost saving measures to start and getting the ridiculous pension burden would help.

Didn't the Post Office mock emails back in the day when they had their chance to get a piece of the pie from emails? Attempting to implement this now after so many years have gone by would be insane but the main people affected would be middle class and below. Not to mention how many emails government and state agencies send which would be paid by the tax payer.

Hope this never happens because it would spell DOOM for many while finding a new way to waste tax dollars!

I'm beginning to think the post office counts losses the same way the movie and music industry does. If real income doesn't match projected income, it's now a loss.

So, let me see if i have this right,

A set of upper level managers cant seem to make the business make money,
partly due to stupidity and partly due to govt restrictions, but none the less,
the business is bleeding money left and right, So to fix this instead of looking at
the business and finding way's to make it profit, this genius wants to tax a
totally separate business that really has nothing to do with the first one?

Hmmmm that sounds just about as good as giving a bank money that cant seem to
manage their own money and .. oh wait, we did that....


This has to be one of the dumbest ideas i have seen yet.

reply to post by Rubic0n

Absolutely. The logic and thinking behind the tax are just laughable on the face of it. Well, they'd be funny if not for a sitting elected official saying them. That part is downright disturbing.

The part that grabbed me the most was the total ignorance of the system he's chosen to make some big statement about. Don't these people even ask for summary papers anymore, before going out to sound like experts? How precisely would one even control to tax the Email in the first place? Who would be taxed, precisely? These little details either go into the realm of Fantasy Land so far that there just isn't any coming back.....or would require a brand new infrastructure I'm not sure even the new NSA center in Utah would be up to the task of. lol.....

Let's see... between school, websites, online work and general spam boxes...I'd guess I have about 10 running with real traffic and double that number that are necessary but dormant. Only a few could even remotely track back to me so clearly as to levy a tax. lol.....

Sometimes I think these City Councils are like romper room for the pure nuttiness of some of what Government on that level produces. (This is why elections really really matter... He's too small to steal anything ...they elected him... those who showed up )

here is an idea to fix the post office.

sell it to the highest bidder.

same with amtrak, which has never turned a profit in it's entire history...

Making the top 53% of earners pay 100% of the income taxes so that the bottom 47% pay no income taxes at all. (Yeah, I know this will be really popular with the entitlement crowd.)

reply to post by Kituwa


While we are add it we should prop up the pony express as well

reply to post by Kituwa


This doesn't surprise me in the least, its been on the card for decades, but I'm uneasy about the speed with which such rules are being proposed and introduced.

Post office needs to move with the times. Attack the ebay and amazon parcel delivery market and have a good ad supported email clent. And anyway what's wrong with a levy on other delivery services who don't have to deliver mail letters etc.

The ultimate goal is to tax every action or transaction we ever make. From taxing you for withdrawing cash from an ATM, taxing you by the mile you drive in your car, to taxing you for giving a way an old CD you never listen to, to a mate. It will begin with the bankers transactions tax as subterfuge because who in the public wouldn't like the bankers to be taxed. But people are fools if they think it won't spread to everyone else. Every activity will be taxed. We are rapidly moving from a free to a subscription model, with extra fees for add on services.

I see three solutions, to the raising of taxes issue.

Return to the original purpose of corporations: temporary institutions created for some public service contract such a building a bridge and then dispanding them after task comletion.

If a corporations' revenue is generated in one country that money should be taxed and paid in that country, simple rule, no way starbucks or apple stores could get round that.

Lastly, at the very least corporations should not be taxed less than people. Eg currently corps get Taxed on NET income AFTER expenses, running costs, rent etc. Yet human beings are taxed on the full gross amount BEFORE such costs are considered.

I think it would be nice to earn your wages then pay your rent, pay the car payments, buy groceries, pay for your healthcare, pay for your medicines, clothes, laundry...bla bla bla and only what is then leftover is what an be taxed on. Why not? The corporations do it that way.

Aaah wait a minute that's how it legally works in the US. But heck you didnt expect a givernment to uphold the lwa did you.

reply to post by ollncasino


I'm waiting for the return of window tax and mandatory swamp insurance.

It's high time we turned the tables and began taxing them for their actions.