California Considers "Porn Tax" to Reduce Budget Shortfall
Interesting. So-called "sin taxes" have been added to alcohol, tobacco, and the like, but pornography? That's the idea being fronted by state Assemblyman Charles Calderon, who has introduced bill AB2914.
The tax would be 25% on the production and sales of pornographic videos, most of which are produced in Southern California. Obviously the porn industry is a huge one, and such a tax would be very useful at refilling the state's coffers.
Many economists believe that the demand for pornography is inelastic:
An economic term used to describe the situation in which the supply and demand for a good are unaffected when the price of that good or service changes.If that's the case, then this cost will simply be passed on, and California will reap major benefits. If instead, however, producers choose to leave California, the state will lose out on the income taxes, etc. already paid by the producers.
3 comments:
25% is kind of high. Geez.
25% really is quite high. Is the raising of revenue really the purpose of applying a 25% tax on the production and sales of videos deemed pornographic (which is an arbitrary term), or does the (unstated) purpose really have more to do with what goes on in the privacy of one's bedroom? In other words, is this 25% tax really a sexual temperance campaign in disguise?
25% is not too high. In fact it should be higher, to cover all the callous and malicious damages that the porn industry has caused to the online reputation of the United States. Obscenity is not protected under the First Amendment Rights!
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