Connecticut Considers Taxing Digital Downloads

[SquireSCA]

So then you must be against paying sales tax? Perhaps you are against paying any kinds of taxes? Look, we've been paying sales tax on everything we buy...I don't see anyone crying foul when they buy a new tv and pay 110 bucks in taxes. Electronic media is still a purchase. It is still giving you ownership of something that is *sold*. This is just an example of the government moving at the pace of a snail and finally catching up to mainstream society and how we operate these days. The lead-in to this story is a bit skewed calling the state "cash strapped" - really? I'd be surprised if ANY state isn't cash strapped these days...25 states already do similar things, according to the real article linked in the first post.

The simple fact is the government does NOT rely on me saying "are you really complaining about $0.06" - it relies on various forms taxes. Period. Yes there are limits to these and different people have different thresholds for what they deem fair. This is NOT a new tax, it is an adjustment to the way we live today - digitally. You've paid it in the stores before iTunes and other online music/gaming vendors were in existence...So now you don't go to the stores because it is convenient - but why should WHERE you buy it (online/in person) have any bearing on taxes?

Just for the record I hate plenty of taxes too. I HATE personal property taxes - paying yearly for something I own and have already paid sales tax on is ludicrous! See, I can be reasonable too ;-)

Listen, our country went to war with the world's superpower of the time, England, over a 4% tax. They considered that to be outrageous enough that it was the straw that broke the camel's back and they were willing to fight and die over it.

Fast forward 250 years and here we are, the average American middle class person paying 50% of their annual income in taxes... Income at the Fed and State level, payroll taxes, property taxes, all sorts of other taxes... Realistically, all of us are working from January to July 1st without pay. The first 6 months of the year we work for free, just to pay for all of the taxes we will pay for that year.

Only from July 1 to the end of the year do we get to keep what we work for.

At some point you have to ask yourself, how much is enough? Why does government even have the right to tax anything and everything, whenever they want, and if they waste money they can just confiscate more? When does it end?

Today, almost half of America doesn't pay income taxes. The burden of taxes keeps shifting more and more to a dwindling pool of workers. At some point, it has to stop. The government is doing all sorts of things that it has no business doing, whether we want them to or not, and they keep sticking us with the check. Enough already.

 

[meishkov]

Listen, our country went to war with the world's superpower of the time, England, over a 4% tax. They considered that to be outrageous enough that it was the straw that broke the camel's back and they were willing to fight and die over it.

Fast forward 250 years and here we are, the average American middle class person paying 50% of their annual income in taxes... Income at the Fed and State level, payroll taxes, property taxes, all sorts of other taxes... Realistically, all of us are working from January to July 1st without pay. The first 6 months of the year we work for free, just to pay for all of the taxes we will pay for that year.

Only from July 1 to the end of the year do we get to keep what we work for.

At some point you have to ask yourself, how much is enough? Why does government even have the right to tax anything and everything, whenever they want, and if they waste money they can just confiscate more? When does it end?

Today, almost half of America doesn't pay income taxes. The burden of taxes keeps shifting more and more to a dwindling pool of workers. At some point, it has to stop. The government is doing all sorts of things that it has no business doing, whether we want them to or not, and they keep sticking us with the check. Enough already.

Couldn't agree more than I do right now brother. Let's just say that the people who founded this country, if they were alive today to see what its evolved into, they'd be disgusted. Ashamed. That all their losses of good men in the past were all for nothing. Govt should not be granted as much power as they have. Its really quite that simple. Anybody that doesn't see it that way really hasn't seen the whole picture.

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[mantispid]

I continue to hope for days gone by, when you'd tar and feather anyone who proposed a tax, and hanged anyone who actually got one passed. Give an inch, they'll eventually take a mile.

 

[SquireSCA]

Couldn't agree more than I do right now brother. Let's just say that the people who founded this country, if they were alive today to see what its evolved into, they'd be disgusted. Ashamed. That all their losses of good men in the past were all for nothing. Govt should not be granted as much power as they have. Its really quite that simple. Anybody that doesn't see it that way really hasn't seen the whole picture.

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Most people don't see it that way though. They see what they were taught to see, that the government is good and needs to control everything from cradle to grave, and that your job is to do what you are told, go be a worker bee and pay your taxes and shut up, and let the politicians, who are much smarter than you, decide what is best for you.

Of course they won't admit that or even realize that, but it is true.

Government was supposed to provide basic infrastructure, national defense, things like that. The basic foundation to let people be free and live their own lives and do what we do best. But it has evolved, or devolved into a system where they get their hands into every facet of our lives, and charge us a tax for the privilege of doing so. They pit the have-nots against the haves so that we can sit there fighting amongst ourselves while the government robs us blind and laughs all the way to the bank while our freedoms keep going right down the toilet.

 

[meishkov]

SquireSCA u r so right, I feel as if you're my long lost brother. Ur right, the majority of people in the world do exactly as you stated, not realizing that their actual life is being controlled and run for them. Realistically we should be forming militias at this very moment to take back what is rightfully ours... our lives, and all the decisions that we r naturally granted but Just being alive. It is that simple. Its extremely disappointing knowing I have to live in the world that is run by people who know nothing yet try to spread and preach and control everything. The problem is that most people don't realize they actually have a brain and to question things. Prime example of outta control govt? Sopa act they tried to pass.

Look musicians and actors, I don't care about u, so don't let your bosses try to censor the ENTIRE INTERNET because your worthless crap gets pirated. Maybe do a better job and people will recognize it and gladly pay the price for what it is that they want. But to try to hold ISPs and search engines responsible for hosted links is criminal. They ought to be tried for treason like I said. They're undermining our entire civilization and most people Just stand by and accept it as fact, cuz they love media outlets or CNN or whoever to tell them what is right or wrong. Basically its politicians all repaying the favors to one another for getting them where they're at today.

Edit: government is like Japanese drifting...they're not in control until they're out of control!!

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[jerkwad]

so you guys feel there should be no form of taxation? why haven't you already formed your militias and refuted this crazy "sales tax" thing that you've been paying for your entire life? why haven't you formed committees and lobbyist groups to fight it? Why is THIS (already established means of taxation) what makes you so angry when it is nothing new, you've been paying it all along with everything else that you've bought since you spent your first penny? I just don't see the issue with the rage in this post - some of you are going WAY off on a tangent and using this "sales tax" thing as a means to say how angry you are at the wasted spending and inefficiencies in government (which, i'm not arguing - there is PLENTY wrong with the current system).

 

[jerkwad]

SquireSCA u r so right, I feel as if you're my long lost brother. Ur right, the majority of people in the world do exactly as you stated, not realizing that their actual life is being controlled and run for them. Realistically we should be forming militias at this very moment to take back what is rightfully ours... our lives, and all the decisions that we r naturally granted but Just being alive. It is that simple. Its extremely disappointing knowing I have to live in the world that is run by people who know nothing yet try to spread and preach and control everything. The problem is that most people don't realize they actually have a brain and to question things. Prime example of outta control govt? Sopa act they tried to pass.

Look musicians and actors, I don't care about u, so don't let your bosses try to censor the ENTIRE INTERNET because your worthless crap gets pirated. Maybe do a better job and people will recognize it and gladly pay the price for what it is that they want. But to try to hold ISPs and search engines responsible for hosted links is criminal. They ought to be tried for treason like I said. They're undermining our entire civilization and most people Just stand by and accept it as fact, cuz they love media outlets or CNN or whoever to tell them what is right or wrong. Basically its politicians all repaying the favors to one another for getting them where they're at today.

Edit: government is like Japanese drifting...they're not in control until they're out of control!!

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off topic man - i'm sure there are other places to rant about your disgust and disappointment with the US government. lol

 

[meishkov]

It all runs hand in hand in case you didn't know. Have you maybe noticed That were are ALL paying more and more and yet receiving less and less?? How is this any different. Alright, the militia was a bit extreme I'll admit, this isn't the 1800s anymore, but eventually, at this current pace, in the future that'll be the only option. Its a given country's population last resort to get back what is theirs.

Hypocrites are the one type of people I can't stand, and yet they hold some of the most important positions in all of society. A new tax is Just their way of making all of us pay for their previous mistakes in their job, simple as that. How sad is that? IMO, extremely. Ideally there should be a fine balance between taxation and the services that government provides. Its highly unbalanced at the moment.

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[skennelly]

Funny 'cause it's true.

[video=youtube;N37IWeQFwqs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=N37IWeQFwqs[/video]

 

[SquireSCA]

so you guys feel there should be no form of taxation? why haven't you already formed your militias and refuted this crazy "sales tax" thing that you've been paying for your entire life? why haven't you formed committees and lobbyist groups to fight it? Why is THIS (already established means of taxation) what makes you so angry when it is nothing new, you've been paying it all along with everything else that you've bought since you spent your first penny? I just don't see the issue with the rage in this post - some of you are going WAY off on a tangent and using this "sales tax" thing as a means to say how angry you are at the wasted spending and inefficiencies in government (which, i'm not arguing - there is PLENTY wrong with the current system).

Nobody said there should be no taxes. But if you read the Constitution and read the Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers, it becomes clear that about 75% of what our government currently does, it outside of the scope of what the Constitution even grants the government from doing. All gubment was supposed to do was provide basic infrastructure, national defense, etc... Not manage every facet of day to day life for everyone, and not being more of a burden than a help.

The point is, the government takes in trillions, doing things it has no right doing, failing at the majority of them, and what is their answer?

"We need to confiscate more money and keep pouring into these things that fail and we shouldn't be doing in the first place"...

And so they look for anything and everything that they can lay their greedy little hands on.

This sales tax on downloads isn't the issue. It is the symptom.

 

[jerkwad]

Nobody said there should be no taxes. But if you read the Constitution and read the Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers, it becomes clear that about 75% of what our government currently does, it outside of the scope of what the Constitution even grants the government from doing. All gubment was supposed to do was provide basic infrastructure, national defense, etc... Not manage every facet of day to day life for everyone, and not being more of a burden than a help.

The point is, the government takes in trillions, doing things it has no right doing, failing at the majority of them, and what is their answer?

"We need to confiscate more money and keep pouring into these things that fail and we shouldn't be doing in the first place"...

And so they look for anything and everything that they can lay their greedy little hands on.

This sales tax on downloads isn't the issue. It is the symptom.

THIS is something i agree with. I don't want to be seen as "pro government doing whatever it wants and take all my money". I agree that there are TONS of things that are outside the scope of what the government should be doing and I have read those papers and yes, this country has definitely found it's way off course from what the founding fathers had intended. I'm not arguing that at all - plenty of what they do makes me sick, on both sides of the fence (rep/dem).

I'm simply saying it isn't rational to b*tch and moan about them putting a sales tax on digital items because IF we are going to complain about digital purchase sales tax then we should be complaining about all sales tax implementations.

As time goes on, the state government is going to see less and less money come in from sales, as people buy more from online stores. And just like any other "parasite" (as many of you like to label the state governments) it will need to evolve and find other means of cash flow to sustain itself. God forbid that as time goes on, that the gov might actually become more efficient (pipe dream, but let's say it does) it is STILL going to need sources of revenue and sales tax regulations and that which IS taxed will also need to evolve (just as it is now), such as digital purchases.

I would say that A) I agree! the government (state/federal) IS inefficient and they do take a lot of our money and B) sales tax on digital downloads is NOT the root problem and C) complaining about digital sales tax is pointless unless you go after all sales taxes.

A lot of you guys bring up good points as to why the government is wasteful/sloth-like/greedy/whatever, but not one person has said how a digital sales tax can be argued and deemed "bad" and yet you are fine (or at least not standing up and shouting and creating militias) for paying taxes on your gasoline and video games and cell phones.

I am done arguing for this "cause"... I hate that I even started arguing that it was "ok" lol I guess I was trying to be rational and think this is no different than the way we already pay sales tax on everything else we purchase. Let's just hope they don't start taxing us on oxygen or hydrogen molecules...and hookers.

 

[dgstorm]

let's just hope they don't start taxing us on oxygen or hydrogen molecules...and hookers.

lol.

 

[kodiak799]

so you guys feel there should be no form of taxation? why haven't you already formed your militias and refuted this crazy "sales tax" thing that you've been paying for your entire life? why haven't you formed committees and lobbyist groups to fight it? Why is THIS (already established means of taxation) what makes you so angry when it is nothing new, you've been paying it all along with everything else that you've bought since you spent your first penny? I just don't see the issue with the rage in this post - some of you are going WAY off on a tangent and using this "sales tax" thing as a means to say how angry you are at the wasted spending and inefficiencies in government (which, i'm not arguing - there is PLENTY wrong with the current system).

It's essentially the same logic that has some believing most digital content and services should be free. Because the marginal cost is so low, they think they're gouged for anything more than a penny. Because it's all electronic and there's "no overhead", people don't feel like a service has been formed justifying a tax.

I don't agree obviously, but that's the mentality. People always want something for free, and when the perceived cost is very low they feel entitled to have it for next to nothing.

 

[arborij]

I've Had It!

I have lived in this infernal state for mywhole life, and it has steadily swirled around in the toilet, and this moron Malloy has finally flushed it. I work for the local power company, and during the Snowpocolypse in October, he initially defended us from the majority of his public, that is only until election day.My question on this tax is simply, if I have to pay the tax, what would stop me from leaving the state, and getting them outside of the tax boundries?

 

[SquireSCA]

I have lived in this infernal state for mywhole life, and it has steadily swirled around in the toilet, and this moron Malloy has finally flushed it. I work for the local power company, and during the Snowpocolypse in October, he initially defended us from the majority of his public, that is only until election day.My question on this tax is simply, if I have to pay the tax, what would stop me from leaving the state, and getting them outside of the tax boundries?

At the end of the day, the hard reality is that it isn't your money. The government has a right to whatever they want, and whatever scraps they let you keep, you should be grateful for.