A Global Tax on Information?
Swiss Communications Minister Moritz Leuenberger has suggested a 'tax on information' to help bridge the digital divide between wealthy countries with good communication infrastructure and poor countries where most of the population have no access to modern communications.
Leuenberger revealed his proposal to a United Nations meeting convened to follow up on the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), held jointly in Geneva and Tunis in 2003 and 2005.
"Today more than half the world's population don't even have a telephone and four out of five people don't have access to the internet," Leuenberger told the conference. "They are cut off from information and any possibility of exchanging information, training or improving themselves."
"If we don't want these people to leave their countries, we must do something to ensure that the gap doesn't grow wider between those who surf the internet via high-speed ADSL and those who have to walk ten kilometres to the nearest phone box," he added.
[I would like to propose a global tax on exotic animals as it is unfair that developed nations do not have access to elephants, lions, gazelles, and zebras that roam in the wild.]
UPDATE: The U.S. House of Representatives has begun to debate whether or not to extend the current moratorium restricting state governments from taxing internet access which will expire on Nov. 1.
Comments (6)
I'm glad that no one informed my ancestors that without the Internet they would be unable to improve themselves.
Published: May 23, 2007 5:21 PM
Mr. Leuenberger stated: "If we don't want these people to leave their countries..."
Do I detect not so veiled racism or ethnocentrism in this statement?
Of course, we don’t want THOSE PEOPLE moving into our countries.
Published: May 23, 2007 5:21 PM
Ironically, you get less of whatever you tax. Perhaps, they're actually TRYING to keep people ignorant. Or maybe these people really are as ignorant as they appear.
Economic illiteracy - the whole world over.
Published: May 23, 2007 10:17 PM
Taken to the logical conclusion, this guy is advocating global communism. That way, we keep everybody down on their knees (or dead) and we don't have to worry about anyone wanting to move.
But me must be sure that we focus so much on what they talk about, but more about what they do. This guy is just another special interest stooge hoping that we keep asking the wrong questions while they raise taxes, regulations and spending.
Published: May 24, 2007 6:02 AM
I propose a "fevered, socialistic, hot air" tax. Anyone who proposes that people have an entitlement to anything that they haven't earned the right to trade for should have his entire net worth taxed away and given to that entitlee.
Published: May 24, 2007 8:30 AM
[In Dr. Evil's voice]: Right.
In America today we have all this and then some, yet the majority of the people are misinformed. The problems are biased networks who work towards their owner's agenda, i.e. Fox News and Murdoch. That and a nation of dumb asses.
Published: May 29, 2007 3:44 PM