Killing the US Deficit: Internet Taxation

The issue of taxes can be a very divisive one.  Many of those on the right are always looking for the opportunity to rail against taxes and government.  Those on the left often see taxation as a necessary evil, one that they would be willing to support even if it meant that they themselves paid higher taxes to make sure that others have equal access to resources.  There are arguments for both sides, and when it comes down to it, no real answers as to which side is best or which set of ideals is most beneficial to America.  But there is one matter with which both of these camps can agree upon, that of a rising deficit and the debt we as Americans will likely have to pass on to our children and grandchildren if nothing is done to help shore up the multi-trillion dollar hole in the budget.  Why not tax the internet?

The internet itself is free.  Service providers do charge a fee to connect customers to the World Wide Web, but that web is intrinsically free.  If I wanted to I could surf the web free of charge all day long at a public library.  Considering this idea, of free access to information, it is little wonder why so many people would be against taxation of the internet, but we have reached a point financially in the US that we need to do something soon to dig our way out of the hole we’ve created with the Iraq War and other expensive undertakings.  Those people who fight to keep the internet free and neutral might have some reckoning to do with the US government but at least we would not be passing down a multi-trillion dollar debt to future generations.

Perhaps a penny per email would be a good start.  Of course there will always be those email providers who will try and charge nothing for their services to try and lure customers to their sites, but if email taxation was made mandatory, and could be accurately and effectively regulated, the US could be deficit free in a couple of years.  Of course, tax exemptions could exist for small businesses, individuals with low income, and other entities with little or no resources to pay for the new tax.  But big businesses and government would be held accountable for every email.  Imagine, every email written inside the US would generate a one cent tax revenue, and there are literally hundreds of millions of emails written each and every day.  The post office charges for snail mail, and since email is a real time and cost saver versus the more traditional method of message delivery, a one cent tax is not such an expensive proposition after all.

Besides, what company isn’t looking to trim some of the fat created by employees who are constantly emailing coworkers and friends and family instead of working harder at their desks or work stations?  This tax would help eliminate unneeded and inappropriate office emails while generating real tax revenue.  People and corporations would have even more incentive to be even more efficient with their time and resource management.  This one cent tax could even be repealed after the deficit is shored up and could also have provisions written into it to guarantee the tax will never increase.  There are myriad possibilities with this tax and one really huge financial problem that could be fixed relatively quickly should a tax like this be adopted.