Taxing the Bloggers

Regardless of where you stand on the issue of Philadelphia trying to boost revenue by taxing bloggers (It's a bad idea, because I'm a blogger and I don't want to pay more taxes), here's perhaps the worst argument one could make in favor the policy.

Gene Marks, a CPA, argues in BusinessWeek, that most small business bloggers do a poor job, and that a tax would weed out the worst.

"This way we can rid the world of lousy bloggers. We can save many small business owners a lot of time they're now wasting by blogging. And those small business owners who don't have a blog can stop feeling so guilty every time their technology guy tells them they should. Because they shouldn't. Why? Most small business blogs are terrible. Most business people (like me) don't know how to write very well, even if they did get a B in 8th Grade English," he opines.

It's absurd to impose taxes to drive companies out of business. The bad ones will go out of business without any help. And given the recent decline in manufacturing in the Philly area, the economy needs to keep every small business that it can, even the bad ones that don't pay taxes.