You've seen them. Maybe you're one of them. Hundreds of students shuffling along to class with iPod headphones crammed into their ears. With no patience to think their own thoughts or at least enjoy the scenery, these people allow the bland mind-numbing crooning the Fray or the inane unimaginative drivel of Panic! At the Disco to manipulate their shallow emotions. State Representative Scott Suder, R-Abbotsford, has recently targeted these gaping masses with irrelevant, manipulative statements designed to drive them into outraged support of his cause.
Mr. Suder takes issue with Gov. Doyle's proposed sales tax revision. This proposal would extend Wisconsin's 5 percent sales tax to include all electronically purchased digital media, such as movies and music from iTunes, a popular music service that works exclusively with the iPod. Rep. Suder took these two degrees of separation from the omnipresent iPod and dubbed Doyle's proposal the "iPod tax."
In an interview with The Badger Herald, Mr. Suder asks, "Why are we out to punish people who are out to download music?" I would counter, "Why are we asking rhetorical questions that make our opponents seem like cruel slave drivers?" Using the word "punish" to describe paying a standard 5 percent tax seems a little extreme, but Suder knows exactly what he's doing. By victimizing "people who are out to download music," Suder hopes they will feel oppressed enough to, in his words, "speak out on this issue" and (not in his words) join in his bitter distaste for taxation. Paying extra for a luxury item to help your state pay for your education, your law enforcement and your health care is hardly the definition of punishment.
In fact, were it not for implementation problems, the Internet sales tax would be a decent proposal. The public views digital media as more of a commodity than before; the music industry is taking greater steps toward eliminating piracy — though their success is at best minimal — and some popular file-sharing networks have recently offered the option to legally pay for higher-quality files. However, buying these commodities online involves not buying them with the sales tax at your local store. A government struggling to pay a deficit should certainly try to recoup these losses for both itself and the shunned businesses.
The Badger Herald Editorial Board stated several objections to this proposal last Monday. The editorial vaguely asserted that taxing a still-developing marketplace would somehow stunt its growth. I fail to see how. While entrepreneurship can be hindered by taxes and higher prices, digital products already have an advantage over physical goods in terms of transportation and packaging costs; businesses are cheaper to run without chunks of plastic and cardboard and large bulky vans, even with a sales tax.
The Board also worries that the tax would reverse the slow but steady trend toward purchased, legal downloads, as opposed to illegal downloading and piracy. As applied economic professor Andrew Reschovsky told The Badger Herald, the state tax would raise the cost of music downloads by mere cents and probably not affect people's downloading habits. Also, I doubt an extra 5 percent would sway anyone who already chooses payment over free file sharing.
This bill's only major obstacle, which the Board correctly identified, is implementation. Until the Department of Revenue finds a way to keep track of downloads or make people accurately remember and report all their purchases, the proposed tax extension may very well be impractical.
Rep. Suder ignores these complexities and deviously coins the phrase iPod tax, rehashing the issue into one he hopes will appeal to his constituents' emotions and greed. Since Mr. Suder is satisfied reducing the argument to one small aspect of the whole, I shall refute him at his level. I think an iPod tax is a great idea. Our society has reached a point where we pay to have something occupy our own thoughts for us. We can afford to consume expensive electronic plastics that filter our senses' input until we wallow in a stagnant, filtered cesspool of pop music. We are passively entertained by professionals even while we walk two blocks to buy pet rocks. The iPod is a flamboyant luxury item; it represents the pinnacle of obscene consumerism. I say, Mr. Suder, tax it. Tax the hell out of it.
Jack Garigliano ([email protected]) is a freshman majoring in English.
