United Nations: Tax Email
Recently there have been some widespread hoaxes about supposed government
plans to tax Internet usage.
The following, however, is real.
The United Nations Development Program has proposed a 'bit tax' on email.
The proposal is in the UN's annual "Human Development Report," issued in
mid-July.
UN officials say that a tax of one penny per every 100 email messages sent
would raise $70 billion a year. That money would allegedly be used to help
provide telephone and Internet service in poor nations.
"Market forces alone will not rectify the imbalance," the UN report
states. "Governance of the Internet should be widened to bring in the
needs and concerns of developing countries. To ensure that the global
communications revolution is truly global, funding is required."
"If you leave it up to the market alone, we can't be sure that the Internet
will spread fast enough and reach the people that really need it," stated
economist Kate Raworth, co-author of the report.
The United Nations has no ability to tax (yet), so the proposal is a
suggestion, or perhaps a trial balloon. Thus far it has not met with much
enthusiasm (perhaps in part because greedy governments want to preserve any
future Internet tax revenue for themselves).
The UN proposal is ironic, since competition - not government subsidies -
has slashed the cost of computers and Internet access to levels that would
have been inconceivable just a few years ago. Many of the governments the
UN would subsidize are actively hostile to the freedom of communication and
commerce that the Internet brings. Indeed, hostility to free markets and
free expression characterizes the governments of most of the poorer nations
of the world.
Instead of strangling the Internet with new taxes, it would be far better
to encourage deregulating telecommunications (which are generally
disastrous government monopolies in poor nations), and replacing
socialist/authoritarian/high tax/anti-market economic practices with free
markets.
Meanwhile, the rallying cry for all who want to see the Internet continue
to grow and prosper - in rich nations and poor alike - should be: "No
Internet Taxes!"
(Sources: Wired News, July 27 / ZD Net News / Michael Brinkman)
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