Oklahoma State Representative William Fourkiller (D) has put forth legislation in the State house that would impose a 1% surtax on all sales of Teen, Mature, and Adults-Only video games. Representative Fourkiller has claimed the intent of the bill is to combat the dangers of violent video games, with the tax revenue gained from its implementation to go into preventative measures against childhood obesity and bullying.
“Violent video games contribute to some of our societal problems like obesity and bullying, but because they raise a lot of revenue, they can also provide part of the solution,” Fourkiller proclaimed.
Current legal estimates place the gains of this legislation at approximately $2.2 million. These kinds of surtaxes, usually on consumer products like tobacco and cigarettes, are traditionally put forward to discourage certain types of behavior rather than gain significant amounts of tax revenue.
(via Kotaku)
What do you think about Rep. Fourkiller’s legislation, EGs? Would such a surtax be the deterrent the representative is looking for? Comment below!
It is stupid and it won’t get passed.
Taxing tobacco and alcohol are acceptable since those products have scientific proof that they can kill people and also harm others. Singling out video games for tax probably violates some trade laws and such. Besides, if you tax video games, then you also have to tax movies, music and books as they can also give people ideas that would lead to bullying and are also activities that could lead to obesity (games get a bad rap, but all those things can apply to the other media; granted music has the most potential to be an active participant in a physically active lifestyle).
Every last legislator, state representative, Congressional representative and senator need to stop making these consumer taxes when it is already hard for people to purchase things in the first place. They should be working on making tax rates fair based on your income so everyone is paying their fair share not putting the burden on people who are getting less and less as time goes on.
/rant
I’m not so positive it won’t get passed. In my homestate of Washington, we just voted on a surtax for candy and bottled water. It would have passed too, if the bottled water wasn’t on included.
And like Candy and Alcohol, video games can lead to an unhealthy lifestyle.
Yeah, but you have to remember that the tax was repealed by voters shortly after it was introduced. The tax was in existence for a few months then voted out; it wasn’t because of water, it was the perceived notion that people wouldn’t be able to afford the snacks. Besides, Washington State water is the best in the entire nation, so we don’t need to spend money on bottled tap water run through a filter and put into a petroleum based plastic bottle that has a chance of being thrown away and not recycled. Now back to the subject at hand.
I am sure that the people would just reject the tax, unless it applied to cover all media, and not just a specific medium (candy covers a lot of products, not just a specified product). Also books can lead to unhealthy lifestyles as well. Same as movies. Especially if you are a critic of any of those things, you have to watch/read/play the specific media, understand it and then write about that piece in a way readers/viewers can understand. And in that process, writers block happens and you end up doing things to calm you down and write (yup, journalism is a stressful business, but a much needed one).
Video games are just the new kid in town, so they get flack for things. The unhealthy diet is not a problem of gamers, it is a personal/societal problem. A large portion of the U.S. population really needs to change what they eat and how much they each, coupled with good exercise, which DDR and Dance Central can provide people (also Wii Fit and the other fitness games).
/rant.