Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Paying for Free Speech.

The government wants to charge you for free speech now.

From this source: 


Comparing the move to an Orwellian plot, NBC reports that the city of Philadelphia is set to require bloggers to purchase something called a business privilege license. Not really making money from your blog? Doesn't matter, says NBC, you still have to pay for the license.
You might be asking how this is possible. Well, according to the City Paper, if a blog is capable of selling ads (many are), it's capable of making money. Which is enough for the city to justify calling a blog a business and requiring bloggers to have a license to operate their business.
You have to admit, it's kind of a nice idea that Philadelphia city officials think blogging is anywhere in the realm of being profitable, whereas the term blogging was once synonymous with unemployed. But $300 is just bananas. What's next? Cities charging to use sites like Craigslist or Facebook? (I shouldn't even joke).




My blog has not one add; I make zero dollars per year. $300 for me to blog and this site would be shut down so fast it would make heads spin.

But I guess that's the point. If they can't silence the dissenters through force they'll just make it impossible for them to say anything in the first place.

6 comments:

Jeffrey L Watts said...

You hit the nail on the head...price them into silence. It's a tactic that was tied in IL in the 90's by anti-gun legislators - make the price for a gun owner's permit $3000 a year. Mind you, they didn't want to "ban guns" but had the measure passed, it would have made it vitually impossible for most to own due to the cost.

The tactic has been revived with free speech as the target.

Anonymous said...

Well then, you aren't going to like the 1% financial transaction tax being discussed in Congress. They intend to charge you 1% when you make a deposit, 1% when you make a withdrawal, and I suppose an additional 1% every time you write a check or use your debit card.

What is it about Democrats?

Chuck said...

So the people in Philadelphia will have to pay $3 to pay their fee for blogging?

Actually if you think about it, this $300 fee could cost an extra $6.

-$6 to deposit the $300 into the bank and $3 to pay the city.

USA_Admiral said...

Our Leftist government.

If you enjoy it, tax it.

If you can make a living on it, tax it.

If they think they can make a buck, tax it.

If it dies, tax it.

cube said...

The left is out to control the internet because God forbid there are conservative views flitting about here and there.

Brooke said...

Tax it all, breathing or not, nailed down or not.