I was visiting Gizmodo today and found a post with an update to a story I found out about a few months ago. In 1898, the federal government enacted a tax on telephone calls to help pay for the Spanish-American War. The war was only four months long but we're still paying the tax, 107+ years later. Get more information at MyWireless.org.
<rant> This is why I'm always wary about taxes on the ballot (or any piece of legislation up for a vote) that claim to be only temporary. They convince you to vote for a tax by claiming you'll only be paying it for a few years. Then, when the tax is set to expire, they put it up for renewal. They encourage you to vote for it by saying "Voting yes for the tax will not increase the taxes you currently pay." The renewal is either made permanent or it's continually put up for renewal each time it epires.
The Patriot Act is similar. It was enacted in 2001 and was to expire at the end of 2005. In March of 2006, a four-year extension was voted through. Who knows when this "temporary" Act will go away. </rant>
Anyway… Yay! for lower phone bills.
This entry was posted on May 26, 2006 at 2:33 pm and is filed under Commentary, News.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Phone bills to get slightly smaller
Posted by massnerder on May 26, 2006
I was visiting Gizmodo today and found a post with an update to a story I found out about a few months ago. In 1898, the federal government enacted a tax on telephone calls to help pay for the Spanish-American War. The war was only four months long but we're still paying the tax, 107+ years later. Get more information at MyWireless.org.
<rant> This is why I'm always wary about taxes on the ballot (or any piece of legislation up for a vote) that claim to be only temporary. They convince you to vote for a tax by claiming you'll only be paying it for a few years. Then, when the tax is set to expire, they put it up for renewal. They encourage you to vote for it by saying "Voting yes for the tax will not increase the taxes you currently pay." The renewal is either made permanent or it's continually put up for renewal each time it epires.
The Patriot Act is similar. It was enacted in 2001 and was to expire at the end of 2005. In March of 2006, a four-year extension was voted through. Who knows when this "temporary" Act will go away. </rant>
Anyway… Yay! for lower phone bills.
This entry was posted on May 26, 2006 at 2:33 pm and is filed under Commentary, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.