Netherlands Considers Internet Tax To Fund Newspapers That Can't Compete
from the well-there's-a-bad-idea dept
A bunch of folks have been sending in various versions of this translated article from Holland, noting a proposal that's been brought forth to tax internet connections in order to give the money to industries that are having trouble competing, such as newspapers. It's not at all clear that this proposal has any chance of going anywhere, and there appears to be significant opposition -- but it's really amazing that anyone would think this is a good idea in the first place. Did people suggest an automobile tax to give to the horse carriage makers a century ago?Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: holland, internet tax, netherlands, newspapers, tax
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Check facts first
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Re: Check facts first
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Re: Check facts first
1. We're not journalists, never claimed to be. The story was interesting in that it was even proposed, so I wrote about the proposal and made clear it was a proposal.
2. I said there was significant opposition and it was unclear if the proposal had any chance of getting anywhere.
3. When I post stuff like this it's because I expect folks in the comments to add to it with more details, which you did. Doing so obnoxiously with insults is kinda pointless, isn't it? Why not just expand on it and tell us what happened?
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Accuracy isn't important when you are trying to build a house of cards - just that the cards all look pretty.
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That said, I would not be surprised if someone did suggest funding carriage makers. In fact, I would be more surprised if no one did. We are not talking about a passed law here, we are talking about a proposal. Ridiculous proposals come in from individual members of Congress all the time. They usually don't go anywhere, and are thus forgotten within a few months. Such proposals could easily have existed back in the early 1900s, and we probably wouldn't know about it without a TON of research. I don't really think things have changed as much you think they have, Mike. Politicians have always feared progress and are generally much more comfortable with the status quo.
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Quite simply because the plan was stopped long before it started.
If you took the time to read every private member's style bill that came up in every parliament or house of representitives in the world, you would find plenty to be outraged about. Just because someone elected PROPOSES something doesn't mean that it is the government's intention or that it has a snowballs chance in hell to pass.
It does however make for a great headline and great future links for Mike.
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Just that it got stopped doesn't negate the fact that the plan was written and that it was stupid.
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Future Links -- Mover over bacon, eggs just got a new breakfast best friend...
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No! Shut the hell up right now! Just cause this is a highly popular blog doesn't mean he should be held up to higher standards than some emo kid in Wyoming talking about how he's thinking of taking up smoking on his Blogger page!
I can't even get all that mad about Mike's obsession with buggy whips because you of jerks!
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Peoples State of the Netherregions
Regardless of who spoke out against what, the fact that someone would even consider bringing this sort of legislation up identifies the moral failure...
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Speed limit
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further reporting
the most troubeling in the articcle is that the proposal was done by a goverment allexted commision that seems to believe we have to show peopple that news is not free. and that we must show people that making news costs money totally rejecting the idea that alot of sites are making money putting the news outfor free.
the problem I have with this argument is that if it's true then there should be no problem if it is really that expensive that you can't do it without getting paid then they just have to wait till all those companies that give it away for free go out of buisness because how will they survuve if there model is flawed?
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gov bailout of an industry.. sounds familiar.
Interesting analogy: IMHO, US government bailing out US automobile industry was, likewise, a bad idea. The sheer volume of US economy is not a valid excuse. US national security is being jeopardized more now by stuffing all that money in the failing businesses. US economic stability would be better off if the start-ups that bank on green tech and renewable energy got the capital injection instead. The bailout expense has increasesd US national deficit and no one will ever see that money again except the families and friends of the top executives of the failed companies and the government officials that signed the bailout check. What message is US sending to other countries? I am not surprised that enterprising politicians and their friends in the newspapers are learning how to make money the easy way.
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Yesterday's news
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