Sci-Fi Storm

A “science fiction” tax???

by on Apr.25, 2002, under General News

Yeah, this’ll get him elected. Michael Williams, a candidate for the 5th congressional seat in Alabama, has proposed a tax on science fiction literature to help fund NASA. Also included: “space, space-related and science fiction toys, puzzles and games”. What’s next? Taxing mystery novels to fund police departments?


4 Comments for this entry

  • mfarah

    Now THAT is one dumb idea…

    Following this criteria, they should tax romantic novels to fund couple therapy, books about babies to fund abortion clinics (and/or anti-abortion activist groups), journalism books to fund the Pulitzer prize, and “[city] from above” to fund cities’ street cleaning.<p>

    Of course, it will trigger even heavier discussions about tax evasion: the IRS will have to determine wether, say, Ray Bradbury is SF taxed) or fantasy (non taxed).

  • YaRness

    this is NOT a bad idea

    the general public doesn’t give a fart about space exploration, paying an extra quarter (it’s ONLY a 1% tax, which was not mentioned on the news post here) per star trek dvd to fund space exploration would be well worth it.

    however the bill likely will not fly, because, change is bad and evil, especially when it’s this subjective.

    • Anonymous Coward

      Awesome Idea

      Implementation nightmare? Probably. But what a great idea. It would mean big dollars for NASA. Episode II alone could pay for a manned mission to mars. Finally the blight of novels-adapted-ad-nauseum-from-television (you know who you are, Star Trek!) would do some actual good in the world. And think how less-guilty you’d feel *deep down inside* knowing that the purchase of your seventh Boba Fett action figure would give us a chance to get off this rock before we’re burried alive in surplus T*co B*ll Jar-Jar Binks plastic drink caps.

  • dugh

    not so good!

    as previously posted here, where will it end? romance novels for couple’s therapy… how scary. but what about taxes on government books to support the government debt? how about we tax books by arabs and muslims to fund the “war” on terror? how about we tax media by blacks to support anything african american? how about we tax any book on catholicism for money reparations and therapy for sexually molested kids? i say we tax congress and congressional candidates so they can go back to school and get a clue.

    how do you even detirmine what is science fiction? just because a story or game takes place in space doesn’t mean it’s science fiction. what about stories that were once science fiction but in which everything is now a reality?

    what is also not mentioned is that the guy works in a supermarket. he has a degree, but how serious is he?

    more taxes are not a solution. focusing on one group to the exclusion of others is prejudice. not everyone who reads scifi wants us out in space, and not everyone who wants us out in space reads scifi.

    tax write offs for contributing to NASA would be a better solution, though then you open the box up for almost anything. but at least then NASA (and every other org that wanted money) could get it without taxing us, the people, and maybe a few people would pay *less* taxes.

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