Global Internet tax

And this tax would fund German Eurobonds, right?

Really, this is the sort of US (and Euro) activity which feeds the 'American exceptionalism' vantage point big time.

It's way past time to tax the internet.

We should be able to start off at 1 penny (or pence) per megabyte uploaded or downloaded. Once that revenue stabilizes we can adjust it up or down as necessary.

Well, here in the US, we're running a deficit and there's no chance in cutting spending so the only thing left to do is find new revenue. Taxing the internet is a great way to add to the general fund. All forms of digital communication should be taxed, including cell phone texting. *Of course* the ISPs and the phone companies will be responsible for collecting the new revenue and passing it on to the revenue service.

On the other hand, there's a rich digital world to be taken advantage of in other ways.

A good side effect will be that a bunch of hit counters on crap web sites will drop to zero.

It'll also reduce traffic on the main internet backbones; hence, speeding up response times for those of us who continue to use it.

Taxing spam -- excellent.

Tax junk sales calls too <smile>