Latest Bizarre Proposal: Save Democracy By Taxing Energy To Make It Too Expensive To Blog
from the say-what-now? dept
Okay, we see all sorts of crackpot ideas and theories show up from time to time, but it's not often that you get one quite this bizarre published in a publication quite as respectable as the Washington Post. Yet here is the venerable Washington Post with an op-ed from the lawyer, Dusty Horwitt, for a "nonprofit environmental group" in Washington DC complaining that blogging and other types of internet content are somehow a drag on democracy, and the solution is for the government to raise energy taxes such that it would make it too expensive for the riffraff to continue owning computers with internet connections, thereby reducing this flood of information. Yes, I think he's serious. There is, I will admit, a chance that this is pure satire. If so, I'll just tip my hat and admit that I was fooled -- but let's move forward on the assumption this is serious.There are so many troubling aspects to this op-ed that it's difficult to know where to start. First, he brings up the classic complaint that the internet today is producing "too much information." Apparently, he believes that all this bad information somehow prevents good information from being distributed. Good information, by the way, is apparently information published in traditional newspapers. He uses a troubling interpretation of a few questionable stats to establish this -- assuming that because some people spend less time on various online sites, they're somehow not getting access to the good information that they need. He doesn't seem to consider that websites and the ease of publishing now allows people to get access to more good information that it was difficult to come by in the past.
He then goes on to suggest that true social movements have only happened because of the scarcity of broadcast media options, which somehow forced everyone to hear only a single message. This is, apparently, a good thing -- because obviously the big professional media only reports on the important stuff, whereas everyone else only reports on bad stuff. He honestly makes the claim that the civil rights movement wouldn't have happened today, because all of these other media would have drowned out the issue. It was only because a few newspapers decided that it was important to cover it -- and because people had nowhere else to get distracted -- that people actually made civil rights an issue. Today, I guess, we'd all just go back to watching hamsters hit each other on YouTube.
So, the problem, as he has described it is that all these damn people are talking to each other online, rather than listening to what the big important "good" media has to tell us. He says that the answer isn't necessarily to tax the technology of production -- though he considers this -- but to tax energy. He recognizes that it takes energy to use a computer and connect to the internet, so if it's much more expensive, he believes that plenty of folks would give up talking, and go back to being passive consumers of what the big professional media says is important today. As a side benefit (no, seriously), he points out that this increasing cost of energy would probably make it too expensive to offshore jobs. These would be the same jobs that have helped create new jobs and grow the economy (he leaves that part out). It's a wonder his proposal hasn't already been turned into legislation. Who wouldn't support a policy of higher energy costs to shut up the riff raff and make Americans have to pay more for just about everything?
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Filed Under: blogging, dusty horwitt, energy, journalism, taxes, too much information
Reader Comments
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Ummm...yeah
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Re: Ummm...yeah
This is the old school philosophy of "Punish them until they are stupid again."
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Re:
One of the best comments on Techdirt ever!
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Yeah, first off I agree with Joe - this guy can't be serious.
But if he is, it sounds like a case of 'what I write is good information - what everyone else writes is bad information'.
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Another side benefit
As yet another side benefit, the increasing cost of energy would probably make it too expensive to print newspapers, too. Or power televisions and radios. Or pay lawyers.
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Irish babies
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Re: Irish babies
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Man the Carbon-Credit-Plan-Harpoons!
"A reduced supply of information technology might at least gradually cause us to gravitate toward community-centered media such as local newspapers instead of the hyper-individualistic outlets we have now."
I find it odd that the article comes from a (sic) nonprofit environmental lawyer. If they wanted to make a case for energy conservation issues, why not start with the inefficiencies within the combustion engine. A car converts chemical energy into heat and mechanical energy with an efficiency rating of about 2%. (When operating, the car looses 98% of its energy in the form of "Heat")
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Re: Man the Carbon-Credit-Plan-Harpoons!
The otto cycle engine is inefficient, but it isn't that bad. It's more like 30%, not 2%.
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Re: Re: Man the Carbon-Credit-Plan-Harpoons!
True.
However, in this make believe world called "Carbon-Credit Land", the notion is to take into consideration the energy required to manufacture, which would be amortized over the product's life. Not just operating efficiency.
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Re: Man the Carbon-Credit-Plan-Harpoons!
Actually, when a (conventional) car has returned to it's starting point virtually all of the energy it has used has been converted to heat. This is regardless of the efficiency of the engine.
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Re: Man the Carbon-Credit-Plan-Harpoons!
I knew this would happen eventually. What a shame that Horwitt's Luddism reflects poorly on the organization he works for, when (obviously, if you take a look at their website) internet outreach is actually key to their mission.
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Holy c$@p
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Control, control's the thing!
about control. Even love of money (after a point)is
rooted in a compulsion for control.
You don't believe the same things that I do. So you're
either stupid or uneducated... or perhaps your mind has
been poisoned by propaganda.
Yes, that's a cause we can all get behind. Now what
shall we do? How about passing the fairness doctrine
and shutting down all those nasty bloggers as well.
God save the republic from such small minded people.
They would be dictators.
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Satire? Maybe...
If he's being serious with this, then he's a moron, and it's clear that he has no idea what he's talking about, and neither do the editors at the Post that published this. If it's satire, it's brilliant, and even a bit subversively saying, "This is what you newspaper goons sound like. And I got it in under your noses."
But so much of this sounds serious that I think he's just a loon that got lucky with some dumb editors.
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Ain't gettin' mine!
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It's got to be satire
http://www.ewg.org/media/interviewees
However, he's also a comedic singer/songwriter and Bill Clinton impersonator:
http://www.dustyhorwitt.com/
http://www.clintonimpersonator.com/
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Irish babes
Oh, wait, you said Irish babies. Never mind. I'll stick to posting comments on other peoples blogs.
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ummm.. if he's not kidding..
but if this person is actually serious, then (as bad as this might sound) find this guy and blow his brains out before this rectal, misinformed idiot actually tries to get someone thats a greedy bastard in congress or such to *ATTEMPT* to but this into motion under another name..
this kind of absolutely assinine thinking should be SMASHED fast!
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He could be on to something....
*(OK, that won't happen but my point is sound)
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taxing energy
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I looked up Eric Williams at ASU. He writes about recycling computers, but I could find nothing like the above statement.
This is probably good because the comment is utter crap. My laptop uses about 75 watts or so. About the same as a medium sized incandesant light bulb. I don't have the conversion from btus to watts in front of me, but even a small furnace must be something like hundreds of times that. My refrigerator, my tv, the total power consumption of of my lighting beats my computer. Clothing dryies, air conditioning, etc, etc,,, all way more power.
If energy prices go up to the point he suggests, most of us wont even be able to afford huddling in the dark and cold, listening to a transistor radio.
This is so stupid that it cant possibly be satire...
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Energy?
(sarcasm)
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Re: Energy?
I like it! There are a lot of computer illiterate out there that you could collect tax from!
http://blogs.reuters.com/trail08/2008/08/22/somebody-please-buy-this-candidate-a-coffeemake r/
The same law should propose no tax on Mountain Dew!
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there, shut them all up
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One point...
Don't get me wrong, blogging CAN and HAS had an impact on corporations and governments, but the op-ed is right - nobody these days would drag themselves away from their MySpace / Facebook sites long enough to participate in a march or protest.
It's one thing to be against racism or the "ism-du-jour" and a whole other thing to put your face out their for the media circus to report on.
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Too Much Information?
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The real issue
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Actual Energy Consumption of Computers.
Total Electricity Consumption-- 1,139.9 Bill. KWH;
Heating, Ventilation, and Cooling-- 355.7 Bill. KWH; Kitchen Appliances (mostly refrigerators and freezers)-- 304.5 Bill. KWH; Water Heating-- 104.1 Bill. KWH; Clothes Dryer-- 65.9 Bill. KWH; Clothes Washer-- 10.1 Bill. KWH; Subtotal: 840.3 Bill. KWH (bear in mind that this is only the electric equipment-- it does not count equivalent appliances powered by gas, propane, or fuel oil).
Lighting 100.5 Bill. KWH;
Home Electronics-- 82.3 Bill. KWH; of which: Color TV-- 33.1 Bill. KWH; VCR/DVD-- 11.3 Bill. KWH; PC and Printer 23.1 Bill. KWH;
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/reps/enduse/er01_us_tab1.html
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Re:
LMAO, when exactly did they start carrying this banner out of curiosity?
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Sounds like . . . .
I have to side with Mike on this a little too. This crackpot and his ignorant opinion dont really bother me. However, the Washington Posts decisions to waste ink on it I do find troubling.
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Sanity Check-- Manufacturing Energy.
The same kind of argument applies to a personal computer. The vast majority of the materials are ordinary, such as the steel casings, chassis, etc., and the plastic parts. The total weight of the chips is on the order of grams, and the weight of the etched layers of the chips is on the order of milligrams. That said, the energy required to manufacture a computer is insignificant compared to that required to manufacture an automobile, which, as I have said, is insignificant compared to that required to drive an automobile.
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Taxing Energy
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Important Information
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Re: Important Information
This is why we have to put a stop to the internet, because if you were a good little soylent green eating sheep, you wouldn't have to worry yourself over these complicated matters, let your government and the lawyers handle it.
Now take a deep breathe and let the nerve.. I mean pleasure gas fill your lungs.
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Car-Free
And what, may I ask, will be done with all of these billions in extra taxes which make people's lives miserable and tantamount to living in Mexico? I'm sure they will go to creating newer and more exciting welfare or healthcare programs that we are sorely lacking and which will not only get us closer to a utopian society, but will not waste single penny of our electro-tax dollars in the process.
I think this guy is on to something. This is the sort of radical out-of-the-box thinking that we need so that there won't be any boxes in our lives ever again.
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Functional Insanity
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Editors should EDIT. Readers should READ. Got it?
Environmental Working Group
http://www.ewg.org/about/staff
I'd be embarrassed if I worked for this outfit. How can you do internet outreach if you have people like this who don't understand the fundamentals of the medium? What a joke.
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Point of Dusty's article
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